Undefined symbol in ft2font.cpython-36m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so upon import of ft2font

[blaiseli]

Bug report

Bug summary

I updated matplotlib using pip, switching from 3.0.2 to 3.1.1 (python3.6 -m pip install -U matplotlib) and now matplotlib cannot be imported. I got the following error:

ImportError: /pasteur/homes/bli/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/matplotlib/ft2font.cpython-36m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so: undefined symbol: _ZNSt13runtime_errorC1EPKc

Switching back to 3.0.2 (python3.6 -m pip install matplotlib==3.0.2) recovers a working matplotlib

Code for reproduction

I tested installing from the git repository:

git clone https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib.git
cd matplotlib
python3.6 -m pip install .

This Successfully installed matplotlib-3.1.0+1299.gce72670 (strangely, this looks like a lower version number than 3.1.1), and importing matpplotlib fails again:

$ python3.6 -c "import matplotlib"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/pasteur/homes/bli/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/matplotlib/__init__.py", line 206, in <module>
    _check_versions()
  File "/pasteur/homes/bli/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/matplotlib/__init__.py", line 191, in _check_versions
    from . import ft2font
ImportError: /pasteur/homes/bli/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/matplotlib/ft2font.cpython-36m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so: undefined symbol: _ZTVNSt7__cxx1115basic_stringbufIcSt11char_traitsIcESaIcEEE

Matplotlib version

• Operating system: Linux CentOS on a computing cluster
• Matplotlib version: 3.1.1, 3.1.0+1299.gce72670
• Python version: 3.6.0

[blaiseli]

It seems that loading a newer version of gcc (8.2.0) and re-installing matplotlib solves the issue.