Merge pull request #9939 from pprzetacznik/patch-1

Add more information about adding kernels to jupyter

docs/source/install/kernel_install.rst

@@ -1,55 +1,80 b''
 .. _kernel_install:
 
 Installing the IPython kernel
 =============================
 
 .. seealso::
 
    :ref:`Installing Jupyter <jupyter:install>`
      The IPython kernel is the Python execution backend for Jupyter.
 
 The Jupyter Notebook and other frontends automatically ensure that the IPython kernel is available.
 However, if you want to use a kernel with a different version of Python, or in a virtualenv or conda environment,
 you'll need to install that manually.
 
 Kernels for Python 2 and 3
 --------------------------
 
 If you're running Jupyter on Python 3, you can set up a Python 2 kernel like this::
 
     python2 -m pip install ipykernel
     python2 -m ipykernel install --user
 
 Or using conda, create a Python 2 environment::
 
     conda create -n ipykernel_py2 python=2 ipykernel
     source activate ipykernel_py2    # On Windows, remove the word 'source'
     python -m ipykernel install --user
 
 If you're running Jupyter on Python 2 and want to set up a Python 3 kernel,
 follow the same steps, replacing ``2`` with ``3``.
 
 The last command installs a :ref:`kernel spec <jupyterclient:kernelspecs>` file
 for the current python installation. Kernel spec files are JSON files, which
 can be viewed and changed with a normal text editor.
 
 .. _multiple_kernel_install:
 
 Kernels for different environments
 ----------------------------------
 
 If you want to have multiple IPython kernels for different virtualenvs or conda environments,
 you will need to specify unique names for the kernelspecs.
 
 For example, using conda environments:
 
 .. sourcecode:: bash
 
     source activate myenv
     python -m ipykernel install --user --name myenv --display-name "Python (myenv)"
     source activate other-env
     python -m ipykernel install --user --name other-env --display-name "Python (other-env)"
 
 The ``--name`` value is used by Jupyter internally. These commands will overwrite
 any existing kernel with the same name. ``--display-name`` is what you see in
 the notebook menus.
+
+Using virtualenv or conda envs, you can make your IPython kernel in one env available to Jupyter in a different env. To do so, run ipykernel install from the kernel's env, with --prefix pointing to the Jupyter env:
+
+.. sourcecode:: bash
+
+    /path/to/kernel/env/bin/python -m ipykernel install --prefix=/path/to/jupyter/env --name 'python-my-env'
+
+Note that this command will create a new configuration for the kernel in one of the prefered location (see ``jupyter --paths`` command for more details):
+
+* system-wide (e.g. /usr/local/share),
+* in Jupyter's env (sys.prefix/share),
+* per-user (~/.local/share or ~/Library/share)
+
+If you want to edit the kernelspec before installing it, you can do so in two steps.
+First, ask IPython to write its spec to a temporary location:
+
+.. sourcecode:: bash
+
+    ipython kernel install --prefix /tmp
+
+edit the files in /tmp/share/jupyter/kernels/python3 to your liking, then when you are ready, tell Jupyter to install it (this will copy the files into a place Jupyter will look):
+
+.. sourcecode:: bash
+
+    jupyter kernelspec install /tmp/share/jupyter/kernels/python3