title: matplotlib get rid of max_open_warning output
body: <p>I wrote a script that calls functions from QIIME to build a bunch of plots among other things.  Everything runs fine to completion, but matplotlib always throws the following feedback for every plot it creates (super annoying):</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py:412: RuntimeWarning: More than 20 figures have been opened. Figures created through the pyplot interface (<code>matplotlib.pyplot.figure</code>) are retained until explicitly closed and may consume too much memory. (To control this warning, see the rcParam <code>figure.max_num_figures</code>).
      max_open_warning, RuntimeWarning)</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I found <a href="http://matplotlib.org/users/customizing.html?highlight=max_open_warning" rel="noreferrer">this page</a> which seems to explain how to fix this problem , but after I follow directions, nothing changes:</p>
  
  <pre><code>import matplotlib as mpl
  mpl.rcParams[figure.max_open_warning'] = 0
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I went into the file after calling matplotlib directly from python to see which rcparams file I should be investigating and manually changed the 20 to 0.  Still no change.  In case the documentation was incorrect, I also changed it to 1000, and still am getting the same warning messages.</p>
  
  <p>I understand that this could be a problem for people running on computers with limited power, but that isn't a problem in my case.  How can I make this feedback go away permanently?</p>