Install Python, NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib on Mac OS X

42 Replies

Update: These instructions are over a year old, though they may still work for you. See the “Install Python” page for the most recent instructions.

A bit ago a friend and I both had fresh Mac OS X Lion installs so I helped him set up his computers with a scientific Python setup and did mine at the same time.

These instructions are for Lion but should work on Snow Leopard or Mountain Lion without much trouble. On Snow Leopard you won’t install Xcode via the App Store, you’ll have to download it from Apple.

After I’d helped my friend I found this blog post describing a procedure pretty much the same as below.

Update: If doing all the stuff below doesn’t seem like your cup of tea, it’s also possible to install Python, NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib using double-click binary installers (resulting in a much less flexible installation), see this post to learn how.

Xcode

You will need Apple’s developer tools in order to compile Python and the other installs. On Lion you can install Xcode from the App Store, on Snow Leopard you’ll have to get an older Xcode from developer.apple.com.

I use the Xcode editor because I like its syntax highlighting, code completion, and organizer. However, I use hardly any of its features and unless you’re an iOS or Mac developer you probably won’t either. If you prefer another editor it’s possible to get only the libraries and compilers that you need with the Command Line Tools for Xcode. (You’ll need a free Apple ID.) (See also http://www.kennethreitz.com/xcode-gcc-and-homebrew.html.)

Homebrew

Homebrew is an excellent package manager for Mac OS X that can install a large number of packages. To install it simply launch a terminal and enter

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSkL raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"

Homebrew installs things to /usr/local/ so you don’t need sudo permissions. To add Homebrew installed executables and Python scripts to your path you’ll want to add the following line to your .profile (or .bash_profile) file:

 export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/share/python:$PATH

Normal executables go in /usr/local/bin/ and Python scripts installed by Homebrew go in /usr/local/share/python/.

See https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/wiki/The-brew-command or type brew help or man brew for more info on Homebrew.

Install Python

Now that you’ve got Homebrew installing Python is simple:

brew install python

Homebrew will install a couple of packages required by Python and then Python itself. Don’t be surprised if this takes a couple minutes.

Important: You should close your terminal and open a fresh one right now so that it has the updated PATH from the previous section. Otherwise you run the risk of executing the wrong scripts during the rest of these instructions.

At this point you should be able to get a fresh terminal and type

which python

and see

/usr/local/bin/python

Homebrew is for installing system packages and tools; for managing Python add-ons we want pip. Luckily easy_install, another Python package manager is installed by Homebrew and we can use it to install pip:

easy_install pip

Install NumPy

Use pip to install NumPy:

pip install numpy

This should install NumPy 1.6.1 (as of Feb. 2012).

Install SciPy

We need gfortran to compile SciPy but it is not included with the other Xcode tools. Luckily, Homebrew can help us out again:

brew install gfortran

When that’s done it’s a cinch to install SciPy:

pip install scipy

This should install SciPy 0.10.

Install matplotlib

To install matplotlib we need to revisit Homebrew one more time:

brew install pkg-config

And the usual pip command:

pip install matplotlib

This should install matplotlib 1.2.0. If it doesn’t you can try installing from the matplotlib development repo:

pip install git+git://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib.git

Congratulations! You should now have the basics of a scientific Python installation that’s easy to manage and upgrade using Homebrew and pip. Fire up Python and make sure things worked. The following should work in Python with no errors:

import numpy
import scipy
import matplotlib

Enjoy!

42 thoughts on “Install Python, NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib on Mac OS X”

  1. Damian

    On latest lion with command line compiler tools installed, matplotlib installation fails:

    agg24/include/agg_renderer_outline_aa.h:1368:45: error: binding of reference to type ‘agg::line_profile_aa’ to a value of type ‘const agg::line_profile_aa’ drops qualifiers

    line_profile_aa& profile() { return *m_profile; }

    ^~~~~~~~~~
    1 error generated.
    error: command ‘/usr/bin/clang’ failed with exit status 1

    I tried replacing clang with llvm-gcc-4.2 (just overwrite temporarily clang) — same thing.

    Any ideas?

    Reply ↓
      1. Damian

        I tried both:
        pip install matplotlib

        that tried to install:
        matplotlib: 1.1.0
        python: 2.7.2 (default, Feb 25 2012, 09:03:36) [GCC 4.2.1
        Compatible Apple Clang 3.1
        (tags/Apple/clang-318.0.45)]
        platform: darwin
        and
        pip install git+git://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib.git

        no difference in result.

      2. jiffyclub Post author

        It looks like this is a known bug in matplotlib that should be fixed soon. In fact, it looks like it’s already been fixed in the development version. You might try reinstalling from github. You might also want to take a look at this thread from a few days ago.

        I’m not sure why your matplotlib is building with clang. I just did pip install matplotlib on my machine and it compiles with llvm-gcc.

      3. Damian

        (looks like deeper replies are not allowed)

        The latest github state passes: Yay – thank you!

  3. Justin R

    Matt – thanks for writing this. I’d been meaning to get started with Python for months, and this easy tutorial gave me motivation to do it.

    Couple things:
    (1) I had trouble with the curl command at the very beginning for homebrew; with help from an officemate, we fixed that by copying the script to a .rb file and running it with /usr/bin/ruby.

    (2) Everything appeared to install fine, and I did a rehash, but after starting python and trying to import the new packages I get:
    ImportError: No module named numpy

    Thoughts on that?

    Reply ↓
    1. jiffyclub Post author

      One thing is to make sure you’ve started the right Python. If you type which python in a terminal do you get /usr/local/bin/python? If instead you get /usr/bin/python then you want to set your PATH as described in the Homebrew section above.

      If you’ve got the right Python but still no NumPy check this directory, that’s where it should be installed: /usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/. If you don’t see it there then it was probably installed somewhere else for some reason. You’ll again want to check your PATH and make sure you’re using the right easy_install and pip. which pip should give /usr/local/share/python/pip. If you get a different pip you’ll again want to make sure you’ve got your PATH set correctly and start again from the easy_install pip step.

      Reply ↓
      1. Nick

        I installed numpy but from there onwards everything is bad! When I do which pip I get “/usr/local/bin/pip”. When I go into /usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3 there isn’t even a lib file! Any ideas? This is my .bash_profile:

        # Setting PATH for Python 2.7
        # The orginal version is saved in .bash_profile.pysave
        PATH=”/usr/local/bin/python:${PATH}”
        export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/share/python:$PATH

        Sorry to be a hassle! I really need to get this working asap. Thanks, Nick

      2. jiffyclub Post author

        Except for the fact that you don’t need to put /usr/local/bin/python on your PATH this all looks fine. What exact errors are you seeing?

      3. Lennard

        I have the same problem as Nick,
        pip is installed in /usr/local/bin/pip, but links to pip inside the Cellar, so that seems OK.
        problems start when installing scipy, starting with:

        umfpack_info:
        libraries umfpack not found in /usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib
        libraries umfpack not found in /usr/local/lib
        libraries umfpack not found in /usr/lib
        /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/distutils/system_info.py:470: UserWarning:
        UMFPACK sparse solver (http://www.cise.ufl.edu/research/sparse/umfpack/)
        not found. Directories to search for the libraries can be specified in the
        numpy/distutils/site.cfg file (section [umfpack]) or by setting
        the UMFPACK environment variable.
        warnings.warn(self.notfounderror.__doc__)
        NOT AVAILABLE

        and much more packages that can’t be found after that

        The /usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framwork/Versions/2.7/lib folder doesn’t exist, as nick stated. Has something changed in the current version? I don’t get it…

      4. Lennard

        Ahhh sorry for not doing enough googling:
        fixed it by manually compiling numpy and then installing with:
        python setup.py install –prefix=/usr/local
        cheers,
        Lennard

      5. jiffyclub Post author

        Glad you got it working! Homebrew installs pip to /usr/local/share/python so it’s odd you have one in /usr/local/bin. That may be part of the issue and manually installing NumPy works around it.

      6. Lennard

        as far as I know numpy now installs with the python from homebrew, I made sure I deleted all other versions of python. Also /usr/local/bin/python links to the Cellar. In /usr/local/lib/python2.7/ there are libraries needed for compiling scipy for instance.
        Although scipy now compiles, scipy.test() results in 50+ errors. Apparently it’s a known bug, something to do with gfortran and the like with macosx, didn’t find anything on how to solve it yet.

  4. Damian

    If you run an matplotlib example, you may find the script though not showing any errors, just hanges and does not plotting anything.

    Edit ~/.matplotlib/matplotlibrc and add:

    backend: MacOSX

    Worked for me.

    Reply ↓

  5. Pingback: Install Python, NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib on Mac OS X – Double Click | Pen and Pants

  8. Steve Genoud (@stevegenoud)

    Thanks for the great post.

    It could be nice to advice to run `brew doctor` and remove old dependencies for systems that are not clean. Otherwise installing `pkg-config` and `gfortran` can be useless (because shadowed by old libraries).

    Reply ↓
  9. Oliver Fraser (@oliverjfraser)

    Hey Matt!

    I really appreciate the instructions you’ve been posting on here. It was super-convenient to use the double-click install on my work machine, however I wish that python had tab completion (presumably from readline). Does this “CIY” version compile with readline, or support tab completion some other way?

    Thanks!

    Reply ↓
      1. Oliver Fraser (@oliverjfraser)

        Yeah, after seeing the HTML Notebook on your site that’s my goal–I have some class exercises in IDL I’d like to rewrite in python. So you totally answered my question, but I asked something different that what I intended. =) I’m actually looking for the unix-like command line editing that I believe readline provides. I’m wondering if that just works with the CIY method.

        I also have just learned that, apparently, the libedit library on OS X can provide this, and it may be possible to turn that on post-install with just a configuration file.

        Thanks, I appreciate you sharing your expertise! The last time I installed a computer with all my analysis software was more than a few years ago, and a lot has changed since then!

      2. jiffyclub Post author

        Homebrew does compile Python against readline so all of the Control-letter commands work in the interactive interpreter. However, I’d recommend the IPython notebook regardless.

  12. Azalee

    Hi Matt,

    This is awesome. Thanks so much. These were the changes to your directions above that I had to make, all very painless:
    Homebrew url changed again. I used: /usr/bin/ruby -e “$(/usr/bin/curl -fsSkL raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)”

    I didn’t have to do: brew install pkg-config, apparently pkg-config was already installed.

    I’m adding some comments to your Mountain Lion Post as well, I ran into more problems than you did.

    -Azalee

    Reply ↓
  13. AAA

    I follow your post to install python and numpy.
    I successfully installed python on my mac book (Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5) but after running the command pip install numpy I get this error:

    Downloading/unpacking numpy
    Running setup.py egg_info for package numpy
    Running from numpy source directory.non-existing path in ‘/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/distutils’: ‘site.cfg’
    F2PY Version 2
    blas_opt_info:
    FOUND:
    extra_link_args = ['-Wl,-framework', '-Wl,Accelerate']
    define_macros = [('NO_ATLAS_INFO', 3)]
    extra_compile_args = ['-msse3', '-I/System/Library/Frameworks/vecLib.framework/Headers']

    lapack_opt_info:
    FOUND:
    extra_link_args = ['-Wl,-framework', '-Wl,Accelerate']
    define_macros = [('NO_ATLAS_INFO', 3)]
    extra_compile_args = ['-msse3']

    build_src
    building py_modules sources
    building library “npymath” sources
    customize NAGFCompiler
    Could not locate executable f95
    customize AbsoftFCompiler
    Could not locate executable f90
    Could not locate executable f77
    customize IBMFCompiler
    Could not locate executable xlf90
    Could not locate executable xlf
    customize IntelFCompiler
    Could not locate executable ifort
    Could not locate executable ifc
    customize GnuFCompiler
    Could not locate executable g77
    customize Gnu95FCompiler
    Could not locate executable gfortran
    customize G95FCompiler
    Could not locate executable g95
    customize PGroupFCompiler
    Could not locate executable pgfortran
    don’t know how to compile Fortran code on platform ‘posix’
    C compiler: xcrun clang -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -dynamic -I/usr/local/include -isysroot /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk -I/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework/Versions/8.5/Headers -DNDEBUG -g -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes

    compile options: ‘-I/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core/src/private -I/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core/src -I/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core -I/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core/src/npymath -I/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core/src/multiarray -I/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core/src/umath -I/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core/include -I/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -c’
    xcrun: _configtest.c
    xcrun clang _configtest.o -o _configtest
    ld: library not found for -lcrt1.10.6.o
    clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)
    ld: library not found for -lcrt1.10.6.o
    clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)
    failure.
    removing: _configtest.c _configtest.o
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “”, line 16, in
    File “/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/setup.py”, line 214, in
    setup_package()
    File “/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/setup.py”, line 207, in setup_package
    configuration=configuration )
    File “/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/distutils/core.py”, line 186, in setup
    return old_setup(**new_attr)
    File “/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/distutils/core.py”, line 152, in setup
    dist.run_commands()
    File “/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py”, line 953, in run_commands
    self.run_command(cmd)
    File “/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py”, line 972, in run_command
    cmd_obj.run()
    File “/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/distutils/command/egg_info.py”, line 8, in run
    self.run_command(“build_src”)
    File “/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/distutils/cmd.py”, line 326, in run_command
    self.distribution.run_command(command)
    File “/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py”, line 972, in run_command
    cmd_obj.run()
    File “/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/distutils/command/build_src.py”, line 152, in run
    self.build_sources()
    File “/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/distutils/command/build_src.py”, line 163, in build_sources
    self.build_library_sources(*libname_info)
    File “/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/distutils/command/build_src.py”, line 298, in build_library_sources
    sources = self.generate_sources(sources, (lib_name, build_info))
    File “/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/distutils/command/build_src.py”, line 385, in generate_sources
    source = func(extension, build_dir)
    File “/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core/setup.py”, line 696, in get_mathlib_info
    raise RuntimeError(“Broken toolchain: cannot link a simple C program”)
    RuntimeError: Broken toolchain: cannot link a simple C program
    Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:
    Running from numpy source directory.non-existing path in ‘/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/distutils’: ‘site.cfg’

    F2PY Version 2

    blas_opt_info:

    FOUND:

    extra_link_args = ['-Wl,-framework', '-Wl,Accelerate']

    define_macros = [('NO_ATLAS_INFO', 3)]

    extra_compile_args = ['-msse3', '-I/System/Library/Frameworks/vecLib.framework/Headers']

    lapack_opt_info:

    FOUND:

    extra_link_args = ['-Wl,-framework', '-Wl,Accelerate']

    define_macros = [('NO_ATLAS_INFO', 3)]

    extra_compile_args = ['-msse3']

    running egg_info

    running build_src

    build_src

    building py_modules sources

    building library “npymath” sources

    customize NAGFCompiler

    Could not locate executable f95

    customize AbsoftFCompiler

    Could not locate executable f90

    Could not locate executable f77

    customize IBMFCompiler

    Could not locate executable xlf90

    Could not locate executable xlf

    customize IntelFCompiler

    Could not locate executable ifort

    Could not locate executable ifc

    customize GnuFCompiler

    Could not locate executable g77

    customize Gnu95FCompiler

    Could not locate executable gfortran

    customize G95FCompiler

    Could not locate executable g95

    customize PGroupFCompiler

    Could not locate executable pgfortran

    don’t know how to compile Fortran code on platform ‘posix’

    C compiler: xcrun clang -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -dynamic -I/usr/local/include -isysroot /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk -I/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework/Versions/8.5/Headers -DNDEBUG -g -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes

    compile options: ‘-I/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core/src/private -I/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core/src -I/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core -I/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core/src/npymath -I/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core/src/multiarray -I/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core/src/umath -I/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core/include -I/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -c’

    xcrun: _configtest.c

    xcrun clang _configtest.o -o _configtest

    ld: library not found for -lcrt1.10.6.o

    clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)

    ld: library not found for -lcrt1.10.6.o

    clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)

    failure.

    removing: _configtest.c _configtest.o

    Traceback (most recent call last):

    File “”, line 16, in

    File “/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/setup.py”, line 214, in

    setup_package()

    File “/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/setup.py”, line 207, in setup_package

    configuration=configuration )

    File “/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/distutils/core.py”, line 186, in setup

    return old_setup(**new_attr)

    File “/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/distutils/core.py”, line 152, in setup

    dist.run_commands()

    File “/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py”, line 953, in run_commands

    self.run_command(cmd)

    File “/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py”, line 972, in run_command

    cmd_obj.run()

    File “/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/distutils/command/egg_info.py”, line 8, in run

    self.run_command(“build_src”)

    File “/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/distutils/cmd.py”, line 326, in run_command

    self.distribution.run_command(command)

    File “/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py”, line 972, in run_command

    cmd_obj.run()

    File “/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/distutils/command/build_src.py”, line 152, in run

    self.build_sources()

    File “/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/distutils/command/build_src.py”, line 163, in build_sources

    self.build_library_sources(*libname_info)

    File “/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/distutils/command/build_src.py”, line 298, in build_library_sources

    sources = self.generate_sources(sources, (lib_name, build_info))

    File “/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/distutils/command/build_src.py”, line 385, in generate_sources

    source = func(extension, build_dir)

    File “/private/var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy/numpy/core/setup.py”, line 696, in get_mathlib_info

    raise RuntimeError(“Broken toolchain: cannot link a simple C program”)

    RuntimeError: Broken toolchain: cannot link a simple C program

    —————————————-
    Command python setup.py egg_info failed with error code 1 in /var/folders/k9/3cg3j23s0slbwbym9fkshj9r0000gn/T/pip-build/numpy

    Can you please help me with this.
    Thanks

    Reply ↓
  14. Jack

    Thanks a bunch for this concise and correct guide to getting Python up and running on Mac. Was having a ‘mare with a clean install and following this sorted it right out!

    Reply ↓
  15. Samuel John (@samueljohn_de)

    Hi all … I have some tradition in building numpy/scipy (with optimized libs like suite-sparse) on the Mac (and Linux earlier). When I learned about Homebrew, I started to join the project to improve Python support and make the “scipy-superpack” kind of obsolete.

    We know `pip` is bad at pulling dependencies. Therefore, I’d like to introduce my own Homebrew “tap” (=easy-to-add repo of additional formulae) at https://github.com/samueljohn/homebrew-python.
    I can support you there (just open an issue) when you get into trouble (instead of spamming in this comments thread :-)

    You can then:
    `brew tap samueljohn/python`
    and `brew install numpy scipy matplotlib pillow` (may tell you that you need to `pip install nose` because homebrew does not aim to include pure python modules that build just fine with pip). If you love bleeding edge, you may want to try `brew install numpy –HEAD`.

    I’d love to get your feedback and suggestions. This is my little contribution to the Python community. Hope my homebrew scripts may save you the one or the other minute in getting a decent scientific Python setup on the Mac.

    Reply ↓
  16. Inno

    hello,
    thanks for the guide but i have prolem installing matplotlib.
    i followed your instructions but got stocked at “pip install matplotlib”..here is the error message.
    using the first option(pip install matplotlib), i get:
    pymods ['pylab']
    packages ['matplotlib', 'matplotlib.backends', 'matplotlib.backends.qt4_editor', 'matplotlib.projections', 'matplotlib.testing', 'matplotlib.testing.jpl_units', 'matplotlib.tests', 'mpl_toolkits', 'mpl_toolkits.mplot3d', 'mpl_toolkits.axes_grid', 'mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1', 'mpl_toolkits.axisartist', 'matplotlib.sphinxext', 'matplotlib.tri', 'matplotlib.delaunay', 'pytz', 'dateutil', 'dateutil.zoneinfo']

    warning: no files found matching ‘KNOWN_BUGS’
    warning: no files found matching ‘INTERACTIVE’
    warning: no files found matching ‘make.osx’
    warning: no files found matching ‘MANIFEST’
    warning: no files found matching ‘__init__.py’
    warning: no files found matching ‘examples/data/*’
    warning: no files found matching ‘lib/mpl_toolkits’
    warning: no files found matching ‘lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlib.conf’
    warning: no files found matching ‘lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlib.conf.template’
    warning: manifest_maker: MANIFEST.in, line 16: ‘recursive-include’ expects …

    warning: no files found matching ‘LICENSE*’ under directory ‘license’
    Installing collected packages: matplotlib
    Running setup.py install for matplotlib
    basedirlist is: ['/usr/local/', '/usr', '/usr/X11', '/opt/local']

    second options(downloading for the website), i get:
    freetype2: found, but unknown version (no pkg-config)

    cc -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -dynamic -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/opt/sqlite/include -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -DPY_ARRAY_UNIQUE_SYMBOL=MPL_ARRAY_API -DPYCXX_ISO_CPP_LIB=1 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include -I/usr/X11/include -I/opt/local/include -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include -I. -I/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include -I. -I/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -c src/_png.cpp -o build/temp.macosx-10.8-x86_64-2.7/src/_png.o

    src/_png.cpp:23:13: fatal error: ‘png.h’ file not found

    # include

    ^

    1 error generated.

    error: command ‘cc’ failed with exit status 1

    —————————————-
    Command /usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Resources/Python.app/Contents/MacOS/Python -c “import setuptools;__file__=’/private/var/folders/7q/0s9d01f50gn_j01xd2_709jh0000gn/T/pip-build-Eberechi/matplotlib/setup.py’;exec(compile(open(__file__).read().replace(‘\r\n’, ‘\n’), __file__, ‘exec’))” install –record /var/folders/7q/0s9d01f50gn_j01xd2_709jh0000gn/T/pip-C70ej3-record/install-record.txt –single-version-externally-managed failed with error code 1 in /private/var/folders/7q/0s9d01f50gn_j01xd2_709jh0000gn/T/pip-build-Eberechi/matplotlib
    Storing complete log in /Users/Eberechi/.pip/pip.log

    thank you,hope you can help me. thank you

    regards

    Reply ↓
    1. jiffyclub Post author

      I’d stick with “pip install matplotlib”, I just tried it and it worked for me installing version 1.2.1. I got very similar output to you but at the end it said “Successfully installed matplotlib”.

      Reply ↓

  17. Pingback: Install Scientific Python on Mac OS X | Pen and Pants

  18. Pingback: How To Install Matplotlib On OS X? | Click & Find Answer !

  19. Gyan Ranjan

    You may want to add a missing piece:

    brew install swig

    SciPy installation would not proceed without it.

    Reply ↓
  20. Matt

    FYI: I got this error installing matplotlib:
    fatal error: ‘ft2build.h’ file not found

    Fixed it by installing freetype and libpng via homebrew.

    Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s