Building on Windows

There are a few possibilities to build matplotlib on Windows:

Wheels via matplotlib-winbuild
Wheels by using conda packages
Conda packages

Wheel builds using conda packages

This is a wheel build, but we use conda packages to get all the requirements. The binary requirements (png, freetype,...) are statically linked and therefore not needed during the wheel install.

The commands below assume that you can compile a native python lib for the python version of your choice. See this howto how to install and setup such environments. If in doubt: use python 3.5 as it mostly works without fiddling with environment variables.

# create a new environment with the required packages
conda create  -n "matplotlib_build" python=3.4 numpy python-dateutil pyparsing pytz tornado "cycler>=0.10" tk libpng zlib freetype
activate matplotlib_build
# if you want a qt backend, you also have to install pyqt (be aware that pyqt doesn't mix well if
# you have created the environment with conda-forge already activated...)
conda install pyqt
# this package is only available in the conda-forge channel
conda install -c conda-forge msinttypes
# for python 2.7
conda install -c conda-forge functools32

# copy the libs which have "wrong" names
set LIBRARY_LIB=%CONDA_DEFAULT_ENV%\Library\lib
mkdir lib || cmd /c "exit /b 0"
copy %LIBRARY_LIB%\zlibstatic.lib lib\z.lib
copy %LIBRARY_LIB%\libpng_static.lib lib\png.lib

# Make the header files and the rest of the static libs available during the build
# CONDA_DEFAULT_ENV is a env variable which is set to the currently active environment path
set MPLBASEDIRLIST=%CONDA_DEFAULT_ENV%\Library\;.

# build the wheel
python setup.py bdist_wheel

The build_alllocal.cmd script automates these steps if you already created and activated the conda environment.

Conda packages

This needs a working installed C compiler for the version of python you are compiling the package for but you don't need to setup the environment variables.

# only the first time...
conda install conda-build

# the python version you want a package for...
set CONDA_PY=3.5

# builds the package, using a clean build environment
conda build ci\conda_recipe

# install the new package
conda install --use-local matplotlib

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