rc_file does not restore settings from my matplotibrc

[fonnesbeck]

I'm trying to use rc_file to restore my default configuration from matplotlibrc after changing them in a session, but it does not seem to be working. Instead, the system defaults are restored as if I had used rcdefaults. Here is what I am doing:

In [18]: matplotlib.matplotlib_fname()

Out[18]:
'/Users/fonnescj/.matplotlib/matplotlibrc'

which confirms which matplotlibrc I am using. I have tried both:

matplotlib.rc_file_defaults()

which suggests that it is using the user's matplotlibrc, but does not appear to do so, as well as explicitly specifying:

matplotlib.rc_file(matplotlib.matplotlib_fname())

which does not work either. My configuration produces plots that are much different than the system defaults, so it is obvious when it does not work.

I am running this from a very recent build from GitHub master on iPython notebook.

[efiring]

Does the problem appear outside the notebook environment? Would you provide a minimal but complete self-contained example, please? This might be done more easily with attachments to a message on the mailing list.

[fonnesbeck]

Here is an example

[tacaswell]

@fonnesbeck Is this still a problem? I am not sure what I should be seeing in that note book.

[pelson]

I'm fairly certain the problem here is documentation (and perhaps a sane API). The following is with matplotlib v1.3.1:

My setup:

import matplotlib

global_defaults = matplotlib.rcsetup.defaultParams
defaults = matplotlib.rc_params()

def print_params():
    print 'Global default:', global_defaults['font.size'][0]
    print 'Default:', defaults['font.size']
    print 'Actual:', matplotlib.rcParams['font.size']

I've set a value in my matplotlibrc, so the global defaults are different to the actual rc defaults:

In [5]: print_params()
Global default: 12
Default: 16.0
Actual: 16.0

In [6]: # change a param
In [7]: matplotlib.rcParams['font.size'] = 20
In [8]: print_params()
Global default: 12
Default: 16.0
Actual: 20.0

Using rcdefaults returns to the global defaults:

In [9]: matplotlib.rcdefaults()
In [10]: print_params()
Global default: 12
Default: 16.0
Actual: 12

Calling rc_file_defaults() returns to the defaults defined in my matplotlibrc file:

In [11]: # change a param
In [12]: matplotlib.rcParams['font.size'] = 20
In [13]: matplotlib.rc_file_defaults()
In [14]: print_params()
Global default: 12
Default: 16.0
Actual: 16.0

The best solution of all though, is to use the new context manager:

In [16]: with matplotlib.rc_context({'font.size': 20}):
        print_params()
   ....:     
Global default: 12
Default: 16.0
Actual: 20

Which automatically reverts the param to the previous value:

In [17]: print_params()
Global default: 12
Default: 16.0
Actual: 16.0

HTH