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[Doc]: Add uv and pixi install instructions #29746
Description
Documentation Link
https://matplotlib.org/devdocs/#install
Problem
Since uv and pixi are shaking up the package managment landscape, they should be included in our install instructions.
Suggested improvement
No response
Activity
tacaswell commentedon Mar 12, 2025
Given astral-sh/uv#6893 I'm hesitant to recommend uv until that is sorted (in astral-sh/uv#6893 (comment) I suggested we add warnings about this problem).
I've been really happy with my initial usage of pixi.
We should look at https://github.com/rgommers/pixi-dev-scipystack/tree/main for how to use it to drive development workflows.
It might also be worth looking into using pixi and checking
.lockfiles in for some (we probably have to keep at least one test run that uses wheels) of our tests (particularly the min versions ones). This might be dependent on finding a good bot (like dependabot) to bump the lock file regularly.DOC: Add install instructions for pixi and uv
DOC: Add install instructions for pixi and uv
ianhi commentedon Aug 7, 2025
I would love it if there was a pixi.toml file (or pyproject.toml but i get that that might be complicated) already here to make it easier to make a quicker contribution.
an ancillary benefit is that I've found it much easier to point an AI agent at a script for debugging when using pixi than having them run with
mamba runor equivalentjklymak commentedon Aug 7, 2025
There is a pyproject.toml. - does that help? I'm a little confused what pixi needs for a dev environment.
timhoffm commentedon Aug 7, 2025
You need to add the right configuration to pyproject.toml
https://pixi.sh/latest/python/pyproject_toml/
tacaswell commentedon Aug 7, 2025
I don't think we want to mix the pixi configuration in with the pyproject.toml configuration.
If we were going to put in pixi.lock files it would be aimed at making our CI run better to start with. For day-to-day dev work we should get an entry in to Ralf's repo I link to above.
ianhi commentedon Aug 7, 2025
Ahhh I was on bad wifi, and the upstream had not fully fetched (and was apparently outdated to pre 2022)
I think even a pixi.toml would go a long way?
I'm not sure I would have discovered that if I was doing a quick change, what is the vision of how that works. I use that centralized repo to have custom builds of the whole stack?
tacaswell commentedon Aug 7, 2025
Hmm, I'm not sure how I feel about just the toml with no lock. Defeats half of the purpose of pixi, but does get you nice tasks (
pixi run docs,pixi run tests,pixi run tests-min-version).I think the right path is to start with this stuff in a second repo (that has mpl as a sub-module), get it built up and sorted, and then talk about how to pull it into main.
ianhi commentedon Aug 7, 2025
The second half is pretty nice :)
I guided claude through some plugging away at getting a working file and ended up with this:
Fairly Minimal version that seems to work for me: https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/compare/main..ianhi:matplotlib:pixi-config?expand=1
could be a nice starting place for a second repo. I didn't include any thoughtful multi env management