doc/api/prev_api_changes/api_changes_3.2.0/development.rst
Windows build
Previously, when building the ``matplotlib._png`` extension, the build
script would add "png" and "z" to the extensions ``.libraries`` attribute (if
pkg-config information is not available, which is in particular the case on
Windows).
In particular, this implies that the Windows build would look up files named
``png.lib`` and ``z.lib``; but neither libpng upstream nor zlib upstream
provides these files by default. (On Linux, this would look up ``libpng.so``
and ``libz.so``, which are indeed standard names.)
Instead, on Windows, we now look up ``libpng16.lib`` and ``zlib.lib``, which
*are* the upstream names for the shared libraries (as of libpng 1.6.x).
For a statically-linked build, the upstream names are ``libpng16_static.lib``
and ``zlibstatic.lib``; one still needs to manually rename them if such a build
is desired.
Packaging DLLs
Previously, it was possible to package Windows DLLs into the Matplotlib
wheel (or sdist) by copying them into the source tree and setting the
package_data.dlls entry in setup.cfg.
DLLs copied in the source tree are now always packaged; the
package_data.dlls entry has no effect anymore. If you do not want to
include the DLLs, don't copy them into the source tree.