PyPlot should not depend on matplotlib.gif

I installed the latest PyPlot in Julia 0.6.2. Then I found out that I needed matplotlib, which is quite obvious. So I installed python3-matplotlib 2.0.0 (Ubuntu 16.04). Plotting something resulted in a PyError:

julia> x = linspace(0,2*pi,1000); y = sin.(3 * x + 4 * cos.(2 * x));

julia> plot(x, y, color="red", linewidth=2.0, linestyle="--")
ERROR: PyError (ccall(@pysym(:PyObject_Call), PyPtr, (PyPtr, PyPtr, PyPtr), o, arg, kw)) <class '_tkinter.TclError'>
TclError('couldn\'t open "/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/images/matplotlib.gif": no such file or directory',)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 3147, in plot
    ax = gca()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 928, in gca
    return gcf().gca(**kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 578, in gcf
    return figure()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 527, in figure
    **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_tkagg.py", line 84, in new_figure_manager
    return new_figure_manager_given_figure(num, figure)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_tkagg.py", line 101, in new_figure_manager_given_figure
    icon_img = Tk.PhotoImage(file=icon_fname)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 3370, in __init__
    Image.__init__(self, 'photo', name, cnf, master, **kw)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 3324, in __init__
    self.tk.call(('image', 'create', imgtype, name,) + options)

Stacktrace:
 [1] pyerr_check at /home/mhu027/.julia/v0.6/PyCall/src/exception.jl:56 [inlined]
 [2] pyerr_check at /home/mhu027/.julia/v0.6/PyCall/src/exception.jl:61 [inlined]
 [3] macro expansion at /home/mhu027/.julia/v0.6/PyCall/src/exception.jl:81 [inlined]
 [4] #_pycall#67(::Array{Any,1}, ::Function, ::PyCall.PyObject, ::StepRangeLen{Float64,Base.TwicePrecision{Float64},Base.TwicePrecision{Float64}}, ::Vararg{Any,N} where N) at /home/mhu027/.julia/v0.6/PyCall/src/PyCall.jl:658
 [5] (::PyCall.#kw##_pycall)(::Array{Any,1}, ::PyCall.#_pycall, ::PyCall.PyObject, ::StepRangeLen{Float64,Base.TwicePrecision{Float64},Base.TwicePrecision{Float64}}, ::Vararg{Any,N} where N) at ./<missing>:0
 [6] #pycall#71(::Array{Any,1}, ::Function, ::PyCall.PyObject, ::Type{PyCall.PyAny}, ::StepRangeLen{Float64,Base.TwicePrecision{Float64},Base.TwicePrecision{Float64}}, ::Vararg{Any,N} where N) at /home/mhu027/.julia/v0.6/PyCall/src/PyCall.jl:675
 [7] (::PyCall.#kw##pycall)(::Array{Any,1}, ::PyCall.#pycall, ::PyCall.PyObject, ::Type{PyCall.PyAny}, ::StepRangeLen{Float64,Base.TwicePrecision{Float64},Base.TwicePrecision{Float64}}, ::Vararg{Any,N} where N) at ./<missing>:0
 [8] #plot#85(::Array{Any,1}, ::Function, ::StepRangeLen{Float64,Base.TwicePrecision{Float64},Base.TwicePrecision{Float64}}, ::Vararg{Any,N} where N) at /home/mhu027/.julia/v0.6/PyPlot/src/PyPlot.jl:172
 [9] (::PyPlot.#kw##plot)(::Array{Any,1}, ::PyPlot.#plot, ::StepRangeLen{Float64,Base.TwicePrecision{Float64},Base.TwicePrecision{Float64}}, ::Vararg{Any,N} where N) at ./<missing>:0

There is no gif file, only /usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/images/matplotlib.{pdf,png,ppm,svg}. I realise that this is not a standard installation method for a functioning PyPlot. However, — and this is a quite open question as I don't know how the binding between Python and Julia is done — is it the PyPlot.jl package or Python/matplotlib who is asking for matplotlib.gif? If it is the former, is this part of the glue code and should this actually look for such a file? If it is the latter, it would be a matplotlib bug. I tried to test the latter but that resulted in issues, and I was not really planning running Python with matplotlib.

After a Pkg.update() and restarting Julia, I tried again:

julia> using PyPlot
INFO: Recompiling stale cache file /home/mhu027/.julia/lib/v0.6/URIParser.ji for module URIParser.
INFO: Recompiling stale cache file /home/mhu027/.julia/lib/v0.6/PyPlot.ji for module PyPlot.

Bad key "patch.force_edgecolor" on line 33 in
/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/stylelib/classic.mplstyle.
You probably need to get an updated matplotlibrc file from
http://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/blob/master/matplotlibrc.template
or from the matplotlib source distribution
...

The, after removing python3-matplotlib from Ubuntu, and executing

ENV["PYTHON"]=""
Pkg.build("PyCall")

according to the README.md, it still looks for files in /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/. Strangely, the path still exists after removing python3-matplotlib, and also /usr/share/matplotlib/ exists. These are directories only root can write to (and should write to only through the system distributions package manager, dpkg in my case).

JuliaPy / PyPlot.jl

PyPlot should not depend on matplotlib.gif #344