ImportError: subprocess

[JohannesBuchner]

Using matplotlib, multiprocessing and astropy I run into this ImportError:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/mnt/data/daten/PostDoc/research/agn/var/timeseries.py", line 7, in <module>
    import matplotlib
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/__init__.py", line 181, in <module>
    from matplotlib.compat import subprocess
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/compat/subprocess.py", line 19, in <module>
    import subprocess
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 427, in <module>
    import select
  File "/mnt/data/daten/PostDoc/research/agn/var/select.py", line 2, in <module>
    import astropy.io.fits as pyfits
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/astropy/__init__.py", line 268, in <module>
    from .logger import _init_log, _teardown_log
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/astropy/logger.py", line 15, in <module>
    from .utils.console import color_print
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/astropy/utils/console.py", line 13, in <module>
    import multiprocessing
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/multiprocessing/__init__.py", line 65, in <module>
    from multiprocessing.util import SUBDEBUG, SUBWARNING
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/multiprocessing/util.py", line 41, in <module>
    from subprocess import _args_from_interpreter_flags
ImportError: cannot import name _args_from_interpreter_flags

The problem is that matplotlib uses its own module called subprocess, which makes the import of multiprocessing fail.

Please consider renaming your compat/subprocess module, so that it does not have the same name as the python standard library.

This bug can be circumvented by importing matplotlib last.

[JohannesBuchner]

I see now that the bug is caused by having a file called "select.py"!