Plotting error python in linux environment pandas...possible to just save?

Question

I am trying to plot a pandas series in python. However, rather than working from my home computer I am working via grid computing on a linux shell. When I type:

series.plot()

I get this error:

  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pandas-0.15.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/pandas/tools/plotting.py", line 2487, in plot_series
    **kwds)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pandas-0.15.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/pandas/tools/plotting.py", line 2293, in _plot
    plot_obj.generate()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pandas-0.15.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/pandas/tools/plotting.py", line 919, in generate
    self._setup_subplots()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pandas-0.15.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/pandas/tools/plotting.py", line 952, in _setup_subplots
    fig = self.plt.figure(figsize=self.figsize)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 343, in figure
    **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/backends/backend_tkagg.py", line 80, in new_figure_manager
    window = Tk.Tk()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 1688, in __init__
    self.tk = _tkinter.create(screenName, baseName, className, interactive, wantobjects, useTk, sync, use)
_tkinter.TclError: no display name and no $DISPLAY environment variable

Does anyone know what I can do or what I should ask my sys admin to do? Is it possible to just save the plot to a file without having it in some sort of display environment first?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 10 '14 at 00:21

You could reset the matplotib backend to one that does not require a display, such as AGG, PNG, SVG, PDF, PS, Cairo, or GDK:

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd

def reset_backend(backend):
    import sys
    del sys.modules['matplotlib.backends']
    del sys.modules['matplotlib.pyplot']
    import matplotlib as mpl
    mpl.use(backend)  # do this before importing pyplot
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
    return plt

reset_backend('agg')
ser = pd.Series(np.random.random(5))
ser.plot()
plt.savefig('/path/to/file.png')

Note that what backends you have available depends on how your installation of matplotlib was built. If you call reset_backend with a backend that is not available, you will see an error message which lists the backends which are available on your installation.

Plotting error python in linux environment pandas...possible to just save?

1 Answers1