[Matplotlib-users] Running matplotlib job with cron

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I've written my first python script with matplotlib, which works fine at the command line but not with cron.  It's quite puzzling to me, and probably involves some path declaration that I don't know about.

#plot data from automate.csv
import matplotlib
import datetime
import numpy
from matplotlib import legend
from matplotlib.pyplot import figure, show, plot_date, setp, ylabel, savefig, xlabel
from matplotlib.dates import DayLocator, HourLocator, DateLocator, DateFormatter,drange, MinuteLocator, date2num, num2date
from matplotlib.mlab import csv2rec
from matplotlib.ticker import *
newr = csv2rec('/home/paulsimon/Documents/automate.csv')
x = date2num(newr.field(0))
fig = figure()
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(111)
line1, = ax1.plot_date(newr['dattim'], newr['bench_1'], '-r',label = 'bench 1')
line2, = ax1.plot_date(newr['dattim'], newr['bench_2'], '-b', label = 'bench 2')
line3, = ax1.plot_date(newr['dattim'], newr['eave'],'-k', label = 'eave')
line4, = ax1.plot_date(newr['dattim'], newr['outside'], '-g', label = 'outside')

ylabel('temperature')
xlabel(r'time/date')
hours = HourLocator(range(0,26,4))

dateformatter = DateFormatter('%I:%M %p\n%m/%d/%y')
ax1.xaxis.set_major_formatter(dateformatter)
ax1.xaxis.set_major_locator(hours)
ax1.set_ylim(30,100)
# Rotate x labels
for label in ax1.xaxis.get_ticklabels():
    label.set_fontsize(8)

ax1.grid(True)
ax1.xaxis.grid(False)
yminorLocator = MultipleLocator(5)
ax1.yaxis.set_minor_locator(yminorLocator)
ax1.yaxis.grid(True,which='major', linestyle ='-')
ax1.yaxis.grid(True,which='minor',linestyle = ':')
leg = ax1.legend(('bench 1', 'bench 2', ' eave',  'outside'), 'lower right', shadow = True)
for t in leg.get_texts():
    t.set_fontsize('small')

savefig('/home/paulsimon/python_scripts/image.png', format = 'png')

Running with --debug option, here are the two different output files:

$HOME=/home/paulsimon
CONFIGDIR=/home/paulsimon/.matplotlib
matplotlib data path /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data
loaded rc file /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc
matplotlib version 0.91.2
verbose.level debug
interactive is False
units is False
platform is linux2
loaded modules: ['_bisect', 'xml.sax.urlparse', 'distutils', 'matplotlib.matplotlib', 'datetime', 'matplotlib.tempfile', 'distutils.sysconfig', 'encodings.encodings', 'pytz.cStringIO', 'xml', 'distutils.dep_util', 'struct', 'tempfile', 'xml.sax.urllib', 'imp', '_struct', 'pytz.os', 'zipimport', 'string', 'encodings.utf_8', 'matplotlib.__future__', 'pytz.tzinfo', 'pytz.datetime', 'distutils.re', 'bisect', 'signal', 'random', 'xml.sax.xmlreader', 'matplotlib.pytz', 'distutils.log', 'pytz.tzfile', 'cStringIO', 'pkgutil', 'locale', 'xml.sax.saxutils', 'encodings', 'dateutil', 'matplotlib.warnings', 'matplotlib.string', 'pytz.pytz', 'urllib', 'matplotlib.sys', 're', 'new', 'math', 'fcntl', 'UserDict', 'distutils.os', 'matplotlib', 'codecs', 'md5', '_locale', 'matplotlib.sre_constants', 'matplotlib.os', 'thread', 'pkg_resources', 'weakref', 'itertools', 'distutils.spawn', 'distutils.sys', 'os', 'sre_parse', '__future__', 'matplotlib.copy', 'xml.sax.types', '_sre', '__builtin__', 'matplotlib.re', 'operator', 'distutils.util', 'distutils.string', 'matplotlib.datetime', 'posixpath', 'errno', '_socket', 'binascii', 'sre_constants', 'matplotlib.md5', 'types', 'pytz.sys', 'xml.sax.handler', 'pytz.pkg_resources', 'xml.sax.os', 'matplotlib.xml', '_codecs', 'pytz', 'matplotlib.pyparsing', 'copy', 'socket', '_types', 'matplotlib.dateutil', 'hashlib', 'posix', 'encodings.aliases', 'matplotlib.fontconfig_pattern', 'exceptions', 'xml.sax._exceptions', 'pytz.bisect', 'distutils.distutils', 'copy_reg', 'sre_compile', 'xml.sax', '_hashlib', '_random', 'pytz.struct', 'site', '__main__', 'shutil', 'matplotlib.weakref', 'strop', 'encodings.codecs', 'gettext', 'matplotlib.rcsetup', 'pytz.sets', 'xml.sax.codecs', 'stat', '_ssl', 'warnings', 'encodings.types', 'sets', 'sys', 'xml.sax.sys', 'os.path', 'pytz.gettext', 'matplotlib.distutils', '_weakref', 'distutils.errors', 'urlparse', 'linecache', 'matplotlib.shutil', 'time']
Using fontManager instance from /home/paulsimon/.matplotlib/fontManager.cache
numerix numpy 1.0.4
backend GTKAgg version 2.12.1
 findfont found Bitstream Vera Sans, normal, normal 400, normal, 8.0
findfont returning /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf/Vera.ttf
 findfont found Bitstream Vera Sans, normal, normal 400, normal, 8.0
findfont returning /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf/Vera.ttf
 findfont found Bitstream Vera Sans, normal, normal 400, normal, 8.0

... 

findfont returning /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf/Vera.ttf
 findfont found Bitstream Vera Sans, normal, normal 400, normal, 9.996
findfont returning /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf/Vera.ttf

And this is the output file (complete) running under cron:

$HOME=/home/paulsimon
CONFIGDIR=/home/paulsimon/.matplotlib
matplotlib data path /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data
loaded rc file /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc
matplotlib version 0.91.2
verbose.level debug
interactive is False
units is False
platform is linux2
loaded modules: ['_bisect', 'xml.sax.urlparse', 'distutils', 'matplotlib.matplotlib', 'datetime', 'matplotlib.tempfile', 'distutils.sysconfig', 'encodings.encodings', 'pytz.cStringIO', 'xml', 'distutils.dep_util', 'struct', 'tempfile', 'xml.sax.urllib', 'imp', '_struct', 'pytz.os', 'zipimport', 'string', 'matplotlib.__future__', 'pytz.tzinfo', 'pytz.datetime', 'distutils.re', 'bisect', 'signal', 'random', 'xml.sax.xmlreader', 'matplotlib.pytz', 'distutils.log', 'pytz.tzfile', 'cStringIO', 'pkgutil', 'locale', 'xml.sax.saxutils', 'encodings', 'dateutil', 'matplotlib.warnings', 'matplotlib.string', 'pytz.pytz', 'urllib', 'matplotlib.sys', 're', 'new', 'math', 'fcntl', 'UserDict', 'distutils.os', 'matplotlib', 'codecs', 'md5', '_locale', 'matplotlib.sre_constants', 'matplotlib.os', 'thread', 'pkg_resources', 'weakref', 'itertools', 'distutils.spawn', 'distutils.sys', 'os', 'sre_parse', '__future__', 'matplotlib.copy', 'xml.sax.types', '_sre', '__builtin__', 'matplotlib.re', 'operator', 'distutils.util', 'distutils.string', 'matplotlib.datetime', 'posixpath', 'errno', '_socket', 'binascii', 'sre_constants', 'matplotlib.md5', 'types', 'pytz.sys', 'xml.sax.handler', 'pytz.pkg_resources', 'xml.sax.os', 'matplotlib.xml', '_codecs', 'pytz', 'matplotlib.pyparsing', 'copy', 'socket', '_types', 'matplotlib.dateutil', 'hashlib', 'posix', 'encodings.aliases', 'matplotlib.fontconfig_pattern', 'exceptions', 'xml.sax._exceptions', 'pytz.bisect', 'distutils.distutils', 'copy_reg', 'sre_compile', 'xml.sax', '_hashlib', '_random', 'pytz.struct', 'site', '__main__', 'shutil', 'matplotlib.weakref', 'strop', 'encodings.codecs', 'gettext', 'matplotlib.rcsetup', 'pytz.sets', 'xml.sax.codecs', 'stat', '_ssl', 'warnings', 'encodings.types', 'encodings.ascii', 'sets', 'sys', 'xml.sax.sys', 'os.path', 'pytz.gettext', 'matplotlib.distutils', '_weakref', 'distutils.errors', 'urlparse', 'linecache', 'matplotlib.shutil', 'time']
numerix numpy 1.0.4
Using fontManager instance from /home/paulsimon/.matplotlib/fontManager.cache

The plot output took me a lot of time to work out, which I enjoyed, and the output is dazzling!

Paul Simon