OSError: [Errno 26] Text file busy on vagrant with synced_folder

Question

Originally titled: MPLCONFIGDIR .matplotlib not writeable on matplotlib import

I am running the tutorial for pylearn2 and I'm getting some errors when it imports matplotlib.pyplot . Some information that is probably unnecessary is that I'm running it in a VirtualBox generated by Vagrant. I've seen a couple of similar errors all referring to django, but I'm not trying to webhost, nor am I out of space. I've tried running python as root, as unsafe as that is, but it still didn't work. I have also tried setting my MPLCONFIGDIR variable with the same error. Please let me know if there is any more information I can include. Thanks.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/vagrant/pylearn2/pylearn2/scripts/plot_monitor.py", line 274, in <module>
    main()
  File "/home/vagrant/pylearn2/pylearn2/scripts/plot_monitor.py", line 57, in main
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/__init__.py", line 774, in <module>
    rcParams = rc_params()
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/__init__.py", line 692, in rc_params
    fname = matplotlib_fname()
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/__init__.py", line 604, in matplotlib_fname
    fname = os.path.join(get_configdir(), 'matplotlibrc')
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/__init__.py", line 253, in wrapper
    ret = func(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/__init__.py", line 475, in _get_configdir
    raise RuntimeError("'%s' is not a writable dir; you must set %s/.matplotlib to be a writable dir.  You can also set environment variable MPLCONFIGDIR to any writable directory where you want matplotlib data stored "% (h, h))
RuntimeError: '/home/vagrant' is not a writable dir; you must set /home/vagrant/.matplotlib to be a writable dir.  You can also set environment variable MPLCONFIGDIR to any writable directory where you want matplotlib data stored

/home/vagrant is my home directory so it is writable, but for the concerned...

vagrant@precise64:~$ ls -ld /home/vagrant
drwxrwxrwx 1 vagrant vagrant 16384 Sep 26 17:40 /home/vagrant
vagrant@precise64:~$ ls -ld /home/vagrant/.matplotlib/
drwxrwxrwx 1 vagrant vagrant 4096 Sep 26 18:07 /home/vagrant/.matplotlib/

---

UPDATE:

it seems to be caused by

OSError: [Errno 26] Text file busy: '/home/vagrant/.matplotlib/tmp3ciLMo'

which I suspect has something to do with vagrant mounting my home folder as a synced_folder

Answer 1

This could be a long-standing issue of VirtualBox with low-level filesystem operations (like rmdir) in synced folders. This was an original issue filed at Vagrant:

https://github.com/hashicorp/vagrant/issues/2282

The most up-to-date VirtualBox issues with the same error pattern:

• https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/19004
• https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/19086

I can still reproduce it with the current VirtualBox 6.0 and 6.1 versions and their appropriate Guest Additions versions.

I can't reproduce the problem with Guest Additions 5.x on any VirtualBox version (including 6.0 and 6.1). So this might be a workaround.

Another workaround would be to use another synced folder mechanism .

Answer 2

I have the similar error when I do vagrant provision . Error 26 occurs when you try to open an executable file in writing mode which is being executed. Use lsof <file> to see the process executing the file. You can avoid this error after you terminate the process.

References:

http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/errno.3.htm

https://stackoverflow.com/a/15514388/547578

Answer 3

Run lsof /home/vagrant/.matplotlib/tmp3ciLMo or fuser /home/vagrant/.matplotlib/tmp3ciLMo to check what process it using the file that cause it busy.

Then kill the process to release the file.