@efiring I think this should fix your issue building the docs?

Im a bit worried about coping the users default rc file for generating the documentation. This can result in the documentation unintentionally being generated with a non default style. Would it not be better to refactor the code out from setup.py that generates the rc file from the template and call that as part of make.py?

Is this rcparam actually used building the docs or is in just something we serve?

@jenshnielsen is this ok?

--- a/doc/make.py
+++ b/doc/make.py
@@ -38,7 +38,9 @@

 def html(buildername='html'):
     check_build()
-    copy_if_out_of_date('../lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc', '_static/matplotlibrc')
+    rc = '../lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc'
+    rc = os.path.exists(rc) and rc or '../matplotlibrc.template'
+    copy_if_out_of_date(rc, '_static/matplotlibrc')
     if small_docs:
         options = "-D plot_formats=png:80"
     else:

It looks like it is used only here:
http://matplotlib.org/users/customizing.html?highlight=matplotlibrc
in which case it is the template with only the backend specification uncommented. We could always use the template as-is, or we could always start with the template and make the single line modification to select a backend. This would make the docs build independent of the builder's platform, assuming there is a mechanism in place that assures default rcParams when making the plots for the docs.

So I guess we should reference os.path.join(matplotlib._get_data_path(), 'matplotlibrc') instead?

That seems like default config, with only backend set.

@klonuo I think that is correct.

@klonuo Thanks

backported to 2.x as 96fb3a3