BUG: pandas can't detect matplotlib on nanoserver (works fine on servercore)

[robin-deltares]

Pandas version checks

• I have checked that this issue has not already been reported.

• I have confirmed this bug exists on the latest version of pandas.

• I have confirmed this bug exists on the main branch of pandas.

Reproducible Example

#FROM mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore:ltsc2022
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:ltsc2022

ADD python C:/python
RUN setx path "C:\python;C:\python\scripts;%PATH%"
RUN python -m pip install matplotlib pandas

<< Then use pandas inside container >>

Issue Description

Build a Docker container using mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:ltsc2022 with python (identical behavior with 3.7 and 3.12) and any versions of pandas+matplotlib.

Use pandas library.

File "C:\python\Lib\site-packages\pandas\plotting_core.py", line 1874, in _load_backend
raise ImportError(
ImportError: matplotlib is required for plotting when the default backend "matplotlib" is selected.

Works fine when running identical code on mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore:ltsc2022 Docker container.

Expected Behavior

Should work with nanoserver too.

Installed Versions

Tried with many versions of pandas and matplotlib.

[rhshadrach]

Thanks for the report. Why do you think this is an issue with pandas?

[phofl]

closing, please ping to reopen if you can provide more context