RecursionError while setting matplotlib backend

[szymonk211]

In Pycharm ipython console with attached debuger:

import matplotlib  
matplotlib.use("TkAgg")

causes import error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/greensort/miniconda2/envs/borowka_fix/lib/python3.7/site-packages/IPython/core/interactiveshell.py", line 3296, in run_code
exec(code_obj, self.user_global_ns, self.user_ns)
File "", line 1, in
matplotlib.use("TkAgg")
File "/home/greensort/pycharm-community-2019.1.1/helpers/pydev/pydev_ipython/matplotlibtools.py", line 70, in patched_use
matplotlib.real_use(*args, **kwargs)
File "/home/greensort/pycharm-community-2019.1.1/helpers/pydev/pydev_ipython/matplotlibtools.py", line 70, in patched_use
matplotlib.real_use(*args, **kwargs)
File "/home/greensort/pycharm-community-2019.1.1/helpers/pydev/pydev_ipython/matplotlibtools.py", line 70, in patched_use
matplotlib.real_use(*args, **kwargs)
[Previous line repeated 2982 more times]
RecursionError: maximum recursion depth exceeded

[floyebolu]

I'm also having a similar issue. The problem is in the patch_use function in pydev/pydev_ipython/matplotlibtools.py.
It appears what is happening is that matplotlib.real_use is being overwritten with patched_use on some subsequent call of matplotlib.use which leads to an infinite loop.

My intuition is that a fix would involve changing these lines:

PyDev.Debugger/pydev_ipython/matplotlibtools.py

Lines 75 to 76 in fb6d330

	matplotlib.real_use = matplotlib.use
	matplotlib.use = patched_use

to:

try:
    real_use = matplotlib.real_use
except AttributeError:
    matplotlib.real_use = matplotlib.use
finally:
   matplotlib.use = patched_use

The try-block is to catch if the real_use attribute exists or not. If it already exists it won't be overwritten.

[davisidarta]

I'm also having this issue. Any progress on this?

[davisidarta]

Needed a full OS reinstall to solve the issue, since no other solution appeared. Everything working fine on Ubuntu 20.

[janaben]

I ran into this exact problem today and the solution suggested by @floyebolu worked perfectly.