Why importing matplotlib.pyplot changes backend?

Asked Oct 11 '18 at 14:09

Active Oct 11 '18 at 14:09

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I need to use TkAgg backend in matplotlib to plot on my machine (A) while calculating via ssh in another machine (B).

Following other questions like this, I do:

import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('TkAgg')
matplotlib.get_backend() # prints: 'TkAgg'

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
matplotlib.get_backend() # prints: 'agg'

# Plotting...
import numpy as np
t = np.arange(0.0, 2.0, 0.01)
s = 1 + np.sin(2 * np.pi * t)

plt.plot(t, s)
plt.show()

But gives the error:

UserWarning: Matplotlib is currently using agg, which is a non-GUI backend, so cannot show the figure.

It seems that every time I import matplotlib.pyplot it switches back to the default backend!

What do I need to do?

asked Oct 11 '18 at 14:09

Francesco Pegoraro

Are you running this code on the server or on your machine? If the server has no DISPLAY how should it show the figure? – ImportanceOfBeingErnest Oct 11 '18 at 14:59
I am using `ssh -X` that should open a window in my mac using Xquartz – Francesco Pegoraro Oct 11 '18 at 15:23
Are you using matplotlib 3.0? Did it work previously with matplotlib 2.2.x? – ImportanceOfBeingErnest Oct 11 '18 at 20:27
Also, did you try `plt.switch_backend` and also `matplotlib.use(... , force=True)`? – ImportanceOfBeingErnest Oct 11 '18 at 21:52
never tried before on this machine with matplotlib 2.2 – Francesco Pegoraro Oct 11 '18 at 22:59
How did you solve it? Any progress. – Pramesh Bajracharya Mar 20 '19 at 06:00
@PrameshBajracharya I didn't... – Francesco Pegoraro Mar 20 '19 at 08:05

Why importing matplotlib.pyplot changes backend?

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