Deprecate rcsetup.validate_path_exists. (#14347)

anntzer · timhoffm · commit 03fc2efe235b · 2019-06-09T11:15:34.000+02:00
* Deprecate rcsetup.validate_path_exists.

It's only used to validate setting the path to the matplotlib data, but
of course the path just existing hardly indicates that that's the
correct path to the matplotlib data; moreover, the intent (see
`_get_data_path`) is that it should not be user-settable to start with.

* correct deprecation version
diff --git a/doc/api/next_api_changes/2019-05-27-AL.rst b/doc/api/next_api_changes/2019-05-27-AL.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Deprecations
+````````````
+
+``rcsetup.validate_path_exists`` is deprecated (use ``os.path.exists`` to check
+whether a path exists).
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py b/lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py
@@ -109,6 +109,7 @@ def validate_any(s):
 validate_anylist = _listify_validator(validate_any)
 
 
+@cbook.deprecated("3.2", alternative="os.path.exists")
 def validate_path_exists(s):
     """If s is a path, return s, else False"""
     if s is None:
@@ -957,8 +958,7 @@ def _validate_linestyle(ls):
     'webagg.open_in_browser': [True, validate_bool],
     'webagg.port_retries': [50, validate_int],
     'toolbar':           ['toolbar2', validate_toolbar],
-    'datapath':          [None, validate_path_exists],  # handled by
-                                                        # _get_data_path_cached
+    'datapath':          [None, validate_any],  # see _get_data_path_cached
     'interactive':       [False, validate_bool],
     'timezone':          ['UTC', validate_string],
 
