Environment Variables

Internal and external (third-party) environment variables for either a user, a developer, or are set by default on a specific host platform e.g., a GitHub runner.

Internal

Package environment variables that influence the behaviour of geovista:

Table 2: Internal Environment Variables

Name	Type	Description
GEOVISTA_CACHEDIR	User	Configures the root directory (absolute path) where geovista resources will be downloaded and cached. See GEOVISTA_CACHEDIR. Defaults to the geovista sub-directory under the user and platform specific cache directory returned by platformdirs.user_cache_dir().
GEOVISTA_DATA_VERSION	User	Configures the version of data resources to be downloaded and cached from the BASE_URL. See GEOVISTA_DATA_VERSION. Defaults to the specific DATA_VERSION bundled with the version of geovista.
GEOVISTA_DISABLE_PLOT_THEME	User	When set, a plotting theme will not be loaded whenever geovista.themes.set_plot_theme() is called. By default the GeoVistaTheme is enabled whenever geovista is imported. This environment variable allows users to override this default behaviour and allow prior pyvista or custom plot themes to remain activated. Also see geovista.themes.restore_plot_theme() to undo the last call to geovista.themes.set_plot_theme().
GEOVISTA_IMAGE_TESTING	Developer	When set, plotting themes will not be loaded whenever geovista.themes.set_plot_theme() is called. Additionally, labels will not be rendered for geovista.gridlines. This allows image testing to be more robust, particularly by being independent of any geovista theme changes. Image tests default to using the pyvista testing theme.
GEOVISTA_POOCH_MUTE	User	Controls the verbosity level of the geovista CACHE manager. Set to True to silence the pooch logger diagnostic warnings. See GEOVISTA_POOCH_MUTE and also pooch_mute(). Defaults to False.
GEOVISTA_SPHX_GLR_SERIAL	Developer	When set, disables parallel building of the sphinx-gallery.
GEOVISTA_VTK_WARNINGS	User	Set to True to enable backend VTK diagnostic warnings. Defaults to False.

Third-Party

Notable third-party environment variables that influence the behaviour of geovista:

Table 3: External Environment Variables

Name	Type	Description
CI	Platform	Default environment variable set on a GitHub Action runner.
EAGER_IMPORT	User	Set this environment variable to disable lazy loading of geovista subpackages and external libraries. Deferred imports are enabled by default in geovista. For further details see lazy-loader and SPEC 1.
PYVISTA_BUILDING_GALLERY	Developer	Set to true when building the documentation sphinx-gallery.
PYVISTA_OFF_SCREEN	User	Set this environment variable to enable off-screen rendering.
PYVISTA_PLOT_THEME	User	Set this environment variable to the name of a registered pyvista plot theme to be loaded and enabled. Overrides the initial default configuration of the GeoVistaTheme when importing geovista. May also be set to the package.module:ClassName dotted path of an importable pyvista.plotting.themes.Theme subclass.
READTHEDOCS	Platform	Default environment variable set on a Read the Docs runner.
XDG_CACHE_HOME	User	Configures the root directory (absolute path) where geovista resources will be downloaded and cached. Overrides GEOVISTA_CACHEDIR. For further details see XDG Base Directory Specification.