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Remove documentation on startup files...
Thomas Kluyver -
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1 1 .. _config_overview:
2 2
3 3 ============================================
4 4 Overview of the IPython configuration system
5 5 ============================================
6 6
7 7 This section describes the IPython configuration system. This is based on
8 8 :mod:`traitlets.config`; see that documentation for more information
9 9 about the overall architecture.
10 10
11 11 Configuration file location
12 12 ===========================
13 13
14 14 So where should you put your configuration files? IPython uses "profiles" for
15 15 configuration, and by default, all profiles will be stored in the so called
16 16 "IPython directory". The location of this directory is determined by the
17 17 following algorithm:
18 18
19 19 * If the ``ipython-dir`` command line flag is given, its value is used.
20 20
21 21 * If not, the value returned by :func:`IPython.paths.get_ipython_dir`
22 22 is used. This function will first look at the :envvar:`IPYTHONDIR`
23 23 environment variable and then default to :file:`~/.ipython`.
24 24 Historical support for the :envvar:`IPYTHON_DIR` environment variable will
25 25 be removed in a future release.
26 26
27 27 For most users, the configuration directory will be :file:`~/.ipython`.
28 28
29 29 Previous versions of IPython on Linux would use the XDG config directory,
30 30 creating :file:`~/.config/ipython` by default. We have decided to go
31 31 back to :file:`~/.ipython` for consistency among systems. IPython will
32 32 issue a warning if it finds the XDG location, and will move it to the new
33 33 location if there isn't already a directory there.
34 34
35 35 Once the location of the IPython directory has been determined, you need to know
36 36 which profile you are using. For users with a single configuration, this will
37 37 simply be 'default', and will be located in
38 38 :file:`<IPYTHONDIR>/profile_default`.
39 39
40 40 The next thing you need to know is what to call your configuration file. The
41 41 basic idea is that each application has its own default configuration filename.
42 42 The default named used by the :command:`ipython` command line program is
43 43 :file:`ipython_config.py`, and *all* IPython applications will use this file.
44 44 Other applications, such as the parallel :command:`ipcluster` scripts or the
45 45 QtConsole will load their own config files *after* :file:`ipython_config.py`. To
46 46 load a particular configuration file instead of the default, the name can be
47 47 overridden by the ``config_file`` command line flag.
48 48
49 49 To generate the default configuration files, do::
50 50
51 51 $ ipython profile create
52 52
53 53 and you will have a default :file:`ipython_config.py` in your IPython directory
54 54 under :file:`profile_default`. If you want the default config files for the
55 55 :mod:`IPython.parallel` applications, add ``--parallel`` to the end of the
56 56 command-line args.
57 57
58 58
59 59 Locating these files
60 60 --------------------
61 61
62 62 From the command-line, you can quickly locate the IPYTHONDIR or a specific
63 63 profile with:
64 64
65 65 .. sourcecode:: bash
66 66
67 67 $ ipython locate
68 68 /home/you/.ipython
69 69
70 70 $ ipython locate profile foo
71 71 /home/you/.ipython/profile_foo
72 72
73 73 These map to the utility functions: :func:`IPython.utils.path.get_ipython_dir`
74 74 and :func:`IPython.utils.path.locate_profile` respectively.
75 75
76 76
77 77 .. _profiles_dev:
78 78
79 79 Profiles
80 80 ========
81 81
82 82 A profile is a directory containing configuration and runtime files, such as
83 83 logs, connection info for the parallel apps, and your IPython command history.
84 84
85 85 The idea is that users often want to maintain a set of configuration files for
86 86 different purposes: one for doing numerical computing with NumPy and SciPy and
87 87 another for doing symbolic computing with SymPy. Profiles make it easy to keep a
88 88 separate configuration files, logs, and histories for each of these purposes.
89 89
90 90 Let's start by showing how a profile is used:
91 91
92 92 .. code-block:: bash
93 93
94 94 $ ipython --profile=sympy
95 95
96 96 This tells the :command:`ipython` command line program to get its configuration
97 97 from the "sympy" profile. The file names for various profiles do not change. The
98 98 only difference is that profiles are named in a special way. In the case above,
99 99 the "sympy" profile means looking for :file:`ipython_config.py` in :file:`<IPYTHONDIR>/profile_sympy`.
100 100
101 101 The general pattern is this: simply create a new profile with:
102 102
103 103 .. code-block:: bash
104 104
105 105 $ ipython profile create <name>
106 106
107 107 which adds a directory called ``profile_<name>`` to your IPython directory. Then
108 108 you can load this profile by adding ``--profile=<name>`` to your command line
109 109 options. Profiles are supported by all IPython applications.
110 110
111 111 IPython ships with some sample profiles in :file:`IPython/config/profile`. If
112 112 you create profiles with the name of one of our shipped profiles, these config
113 113 files will be copied over instead of starting with the automatically generated
114 114 config files.
115 115
116 116 IPython extends the config loader for Python files so that you can inherit
117 117 config from another profile. To do this, use a line like this in your Python
118 118 config file:
119 119
120 120 .. sourcecode:: python
121 121
122 122 load_subconfig('ipython_config.py', profile='default')
123
124 .. _startup_files:
125
126 Startup Files
127 -------------
128
129 If you want some code to be run at the beginning of every IPython session with
130 a particular profile, the easiest way is to add Python (``.py``) or
131 IPython (``.ipy``) scripts to your :file:`<profile>/startup` directory. Files
132 in this directory will always be executed as soon as the IPython shell is
133 constructed, and before any other code or scripts you have specified. If you
134 have multiple files in the startup directory, they will be run in
135 lexicographical order, so you can control the ordering by adding a '00-'
136 prefix.
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