From 6091e12f54d6abd424f7fcfd0bfa8ba1491d0335 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "Albert Y. Shih" <ayshih@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:01:37 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Backport PR #31969: Stop passing symlinks to ImageMagick

---
 lib/matplotlib/testing/compare.py | 3 +++
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)

diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/testing/compare.py b/lib/matplotlib/testing/compare.py
index 2b94847a72b6..92547c3585f6 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/testing/compare.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/testing/compare.py
@@ -100,6 +100,9 @@ def _read_until(self, terminator):
 class _MagickConverter:
     def __call__(self, orig, dest):
         try:
+            # ImageMagick may not be permitted to follow a symlink, so resolve it
+            if orig.is_symlink():
+                orig = orig.resolve()
             subprocess.run(
                 [mpl._get_executable_info("magick").executable, orig, dest],
                 check=True)