# How to diagnose where a segfault is occurring

First thing to try is simply rm -rf the site-packages/matplotlib and

build subdirs and get a clean install. Installing a new version over

a pretty old version has been known to cause trouble, segfault, etc.

Try importing these packages individually

import matplotlib._image

import matplotlib._transforms

#one of these three depending on which numerix package you are using

import matplotlib.backends._na_backend_agg # for numarray

import matplotlib.backends._nc_backend_agg # for Numeric

import matplotlib.backends._ns_backend_agg # for numpy

import matplotlib.backends._tkagg

import matplotlib._agg

If the last two work and the others don't, it is likely you need to

upgrade your gcc, because on some platforms (OS X for sure) old

versions of gcc cannot compile new versions of pycxx, which matplotlib

uses for building some but not all of it's extensions. Report back

which if any work or segfault or raise tracebacks,

If that shed additional light, again flush the build and install dirs,

and try setting VERBOSE=True in setup.py before doing a clean install.

The VERBOSE setting will generate lots of extra output and may help

indicate where the segfault is occurring