From f1b89b209e9898e7f87ba3cb4f41b62aab6c82ed Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Michael Droettboom <mdboom@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2015 17:51:34 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Fix #4487: Take hist bins from rcParam

---
 lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py | 11 ++++++++---
 lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py    |  3 +++
 matplotlibrc.template        |  5 +++++
 3 files changed, 16 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
index abacbc4c715a..3ad6811e4190 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
@@ -5684,7 +5684,7 @@ def table(self, **kwargs):
 
     @unpack_labeled_data(replace_names=["x", 'weights'], label_namer="x")
     @docstring.dedent_interpd
-    def hist(self, x, bins=10, range=None, normed=False, weights=None,
+    def hist(self, x, bins=None, range=None, normed=False, weights=None,
              cumulative=False, bottom=None, histtype='bar', align='mid',
              orientation='vertical', rwidth=None, log=False,
              color=None, label=None, stacked=False,
@@ -5710,14 +5710,16 @@ def hist(self, x, bins=10, range=None, normed=False, weights=None,
             Input values, this takes either a single array or a sequency of
             arrays which are not required to be of the same length
 
-        bins : integer or array_like, optional
+        bins : integer or array_like or 'auto', optional
             If an integer is given, `bins + 1` bin edges are returned,
             consistently with :func:`numpy.histogram` for numpy version >=
             1.3.
 
             Unequally spaced bins are supported if `bins` is a sequence.
 
-            default is 10
+            If Numpy 1.11 is installed, may also be ``'auto'``.
+
+            Default is taken from the rcParam ``hist.bins``.
 
         range : tuple or None, optional
             The lower and upper range of the bins. Lower and upper outliers
@@ -5879,6 +5881,9 @@ def hist(self, x, bins=10, range=None, normed=False, weights=None,
         if np.isscalar(x):
             x = [x]
 
+        if bins is None:
+            bins = rcParams['hist.bins']
+
         # xrange becomes range after 2to3
         bin_range = range
         range = __builtins__["range"]
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py b/lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py
index d3705005c14e..97d0015a4ec6 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py
@@ -813,6 +813,9 @@ def validate_cycler(s):
     'patch.facecolor':   ['b', validate_color],  # blue
     'patch.antialiased': [True, validate_bool],  # antialiased (no jaggies)
 
+    ## Histogram properties
+    'hist.bins': [10, validate_any],
+
     ## Boxplot properties
     'boxplot.notch': [False, validate_bool],
     'boxplot.vertical': [True, validate_bool],
diff --git a/matplotlibrc.template b/matplotlibrc.template
index 705e894442dd..0aa172251f82 100644
--- a/matplotlibrc.template
+++ b/matplotlibrc.template
@@ -376,6 +376,11 @@ backend      : %(backend)s
 ### ERRORBAR PLOTS
 #errorbar.capsize : 3             # length of end cap on error bars in pixels
 
+### HISTOGRAM PLOTS
+#hist.bins : 10                   # The default number of histogram bins.
+                                  # If Numpy 1.11 or later is
+                                  # installed, may also be `auto`
+
 ### Agg rendering
 ### Warning: experimental, 2008/10/10
 #agg.path.chunksize : 0           # 0 to disable; values in the range