<spanid="installing-for-devs"></span><h1>Setting up Matplotlib for development<aclass="headerlink" href="#setting-up-matplotlib-for-development" title="Permalink to this headline">#</a></h1>
<sectionid="creating-a-dedicated-environment">
<spanid="dev-environment"></span><h2>Creating a dedicated environment<aclass="headerlink" href="#creating-a-dedicated-environment" title="Permalink to this headline">#</a></h2>
<p>You should set up a dedicated environment to decouple your Matplotlib
development from other Python and Matplotlib installations on your system.
Here we use python's virtual environment <aclass="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html">venv</a>, but you may also use others
<spanclass="o"><</span><spanclass="n">file</span><spanclass="n">folder</span><spanclass="n">location</span><spanclass="o">></span>\<spanclass="n">Scripts</span>\<spanclass="n">activate</span><spanclass="o">.</span><spanclass="n">bat</span><spanclass="c1"># Windows cmd.exe</span>
<spanclass="o"><</span><spanclass="n">file</span><spanclass="n">folder</span><spanclass="n">location</span><spanclass="o">></span>\<spanclass="n">Scripts</span>\<spanclass="n">Activate</span><spanclass="o">.</span><spanclass="n">ps1</span><spanclass="c1"># Windows PowerShell</span>
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<p>Whenever you plan to work on Matplotlib, remember to activate the development
<h2>Retrieving the latest version of the code<aclass="headerlink" href="#retrieving-the-latest-version-of-the-code" title="Permalink to this headline">#</a></h2>
<p>Matplotlib is hosted at <aclass="reference external" href="https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib.git">https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib.git</a>.</p>
<p>You can retrieve the latest sources with the command (see
<aclass="reference internal" href="gitwash/set_up_fork.html#set-up-fork"><spanclass="std std-ref">Set up your fork</span></a> for more details):</p>
<h2>Installing Matplotlib in editable mode<aclass="headerlink" href="#installing-matplotlib-in-editable-mode" title="Permalink to this headline">#</a></h2>
<p>Install Matplotlib in editable mode from the <codeclass="file docutils literal notranslate"><spanclass="pre">matplotlib</span></code> directory
<h2>Installing additional dependencies for development<aclass="headerlink" href="#installing-additional-dependencies-for-development" title="Permalink to this headline">#</a></h2>
<p>See <aclass="reference internal" href="dependencies.html#development-dependencies"><spanclass="std std-ref">Additional dependencies for development</span></a>.</p>
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<divid="unreleased-message"> You are reading an old version of the documentation (v3.5.3). For the latest version see <ahref="https://matplotlib.org/stable/devel/development_setup.html">https://matplotlib.org/stable/devel/development_setup.html</a></div>