==========================
Frequently Asked Questions
==========================

Plotting questions
------------------

**Q:** I'm running into latex errors when :code:`bilby` tries to create plots, what should I do?

**A:** Matplotlib can be a little finicky. We wrap plotting commands in a function
which can set up the rcParams and we use environment variables to allow
configuration of this. See the docstring of this :code:`bilby.core.utils.latex_plot_format`
for the allowed configuration options.


Global meta data
----------------

**Q:** I'm seeing a message about global meta data, what does this mean?

**A:** In :code:`bilby` 2.5.0, the global meta data dictionary was added to the result object
under :code:`result.meta_data["global_meta_data]`. This includes information such as the 
global cosmology and random number generator. To ensure backwards compatibility,
by default, this dictionary is removed from the result object when it is instantiated.
In a future release, this will be changed.
In the meantime, you can include the global meta data by setting the
global variable :code:`BILBY_INCLUDE_GLOBAL_META_DATA=1`
(:code:`BILBY_INCLUDE_GLOBAL_META_DATA=0` excludes it).
This can be either be done in the command line using
:code:`export BILBY_INCLUDE_GLOBAL_META_DATA=1` or within
python (e.g. using :code:`os`,
:code:`os.environ["BILBY_INCLUDE_GLOBAL_META_DATA"] = "1"`)