matplotlib: Error in sys.exitfunc

Question

I keep getting error in sys.exitfunc when working with matplotlib. For example, the following code throw it for matplotlib 1.3.0 / Python 2.7.3 / Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS

from matplotlib.pyplot import figure, show
from numpy.random import random
fh = figure(figsize = (15, 10, ))
ax = fh.add_axes((.1, .1, .8, .8, ))
ax.scatter(random((100, )), random((100, )))
fh.show()

This yields

Error in atexit._run_exitfuncs:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/atexit.py", line 24, in _run_exitfuncs
    func(*targs, **kargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/_pylab_helpers.py", line 86, in destroy_all
    manager.destroy()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_gtk3.py", line 427, in destroy
    self.canvas.destroy()
AttributeError: FigureManagerGTK3Agg instance has no attribute 'canvas'
Error in sys.exitfunc:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/atexit.py", line 24, in _run_exitfuncs
    func(*targs, **kargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/_pylab_helpers.py", line 86, in destroy_all
    manager.destroy()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_gtk3.py", line 427, in destroy
    self.canvas.destroy()
AttributeError: FigureManagerGTK3Agg instance has no attribute 'canvas'

This happens any time the program terminates without show(), including when an unrelated error is raised.

If I use show() instead of fh.show(), I don't get this error. I could just do that, but this error pops up in a lot of places and I prefer to just solve it (and I want to be able to exit without showing a figure).

I tried other backends which either are unavailable, don't have show or give the same error (this is GKT3Agg).

Answer 1

I had the same error. Using matplotlib.pyplot.close() at the end of my program fixed it. Perhaps this works for you?