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1 1 =================
2 2 IPython reference
3 3 =================
4 4
5 5 .. _command_line_options:
6 6
7 7 Command-line usage
8 8 ==================
9 9
10 10 You start IPython with the command::
11 11
12 12 $ ipython [options] files
13 13
14 14 .. note::
15 15
16 16 For IPython on Python 3, use ``ipython3`` in place of ``ipython``.
17 17
18 18 If invoked with no options, it executes all the files listed in sequence
19 19 and drops you into the interpreter while still acknowledging any options
20 20 you may have set in your ipython_config.py. This behavior is different from
21 21 standard Python, which when called as python -i will only execute one
22 22 file and ignore your configuration setup.
23 23
24 24 Please note that some of the configuration options are not available at
25 25 the command line, simply because they are not practical here. Look into
26 26 your configuration files for details on those. There are separate configuration
27 27 files for each profile, and the files look like "ipython_config.py" or
28 28 "ipython_config_<frontendname>.py". Profile directories look like
29 29 "profile_profilename" and are typically installed in the IPYTHONDIR directory.
30 30 For Linux users, this will be $HOME/.config/ipython, and for other users it
31 31 will be $HOME/.ipython. For Windows users, $HOME resolves to C:\\Documents and
32 32 Settings\\YourUserName in most instances.
33 33
34 34
35 35 Eventloop integration
36 36 ---------------------
37 37
38 38 Previously IPython had command line options for controlling GUI event loop
39 39 integration (-gthread, -qthread, -q4thread, -wthread, -pylab). As of IPython
40 40 version 0.11, these have been removed. Please see the new ``%gui``
41 41 magic command or :ref:`this section <gui_support>` for details on the new
42 42 interface, or specify the gui at the commandline::
43 43
44 44 $ ipython --gui=qt
45 45
46 46
47 47 Command-line Options
48 48 --------------------
49 49
50 50 To see the options IPython accepts, use ``ipython --help`` (and you probably
51 51 should run the output through a pager such as ``ipython --help | less`` for
52 52 more convenient reading). This shows all the options that have a single-word
53 53 alias to control them, but IPython lets you configure all of its objects from
54 54 the command-line by passing the full class name and a corresponding value; type
55 55 ``ipython --help-all`` to see this full list. For example::
56 56
57 57 ipython --pylab qt
58 58
59 59 is equivalent to::
60 60
61 61 ipython --TerminalIPythonApp.pylab='qt'
62 62
63 63 Note that in the second form, you *must* use the equal sign, as the expression
64 64 is evaluated as an actual Python assignment. While in the above example the
65 65 short form is more convenient, only the most common options have a short form,
66 66 while any configurable variable in IPython can be set at the command-line by
67 67 using the long form. This long form is the same syntax used in the
68 68 configuration files, if you want to set these options permanently.
69 69
70 70
71 71 Interactive use
72 72 ===============
73 73
74 74 IPython is meant to work as a drop-in replacement for the standard interactive
75 75 interpreter. As such, any code which is valid python should execute normally
76 76 under IPython (cases where this is not true should be reported as bugs). It
77 77 does, however, offer many features which are not available at a standard python
78 78 prompt. What follows is a list of these.
79 79
80 80
81 81 Caution for Windows users
82 82 -------------------------
83 83
84 84 Windows, unfortunately, uses the '\\' character as a path separator. This is a
85 85 terrible choice, because '\\' also represents the escape character in most
86 86 modern programming languages, including Python. For this reason, using '/'
87 87 character is recommended if you have problems with ``\``. However, in Windows
88 88 commands '/' flags options, so you can not use it for the root directory. This
89 89 means that paths beginning at the root must be typed in a contrived manner
90 90 like: ``%copy \opt/foo/bar.txt \tmp``
91 91
92 92 .. _magic:
93 93
94 94 Magic command system
95 95 --------------------
96 96
97 97 IPython will treat any line whose first character is a % as a special
98 98 call to a 'magic' function. These allow you to control the behavior of
99 99 IPython itself, plus a lot of system-type features. They are all
100 100 prefixed with a % character, but parameters are given without
101 101 parentheses or quotes.
102 102
103 103 Lines that begin with ``%%`` signal a *cell magic*: they take as arguments not
104 104 only the rest of the current line, but all lines below them as well, in the
105 105 current execution block. Cell magics can in fact make arbitrary modifications
106 106 to the input they receive, which need not even be valid Python code at all.
107 107 They receive the whole block as a single string.
108 108
109 109 As a line magic example, the ``%cd`` magic works just like the OS command of
110 110 the same name::
111 111
112 112 In [8]: %cd
113 113 /home/fperez
114 114
115 115 The following uses the builtin ``timeit`` in cell mode::
116 116
117 117 In [10]: %%timeit x = range(10000)
118 118 ...: min(x)
119 119 ...: max(x)
120 120 ...:
121 121 1000 loops, best of 3: 438 us per loop
122 122
123 123 In this case, ``x = range(10000)`` is called as the line argument, and the
124 124 block with ``min(x)`` and ``max(x)`` is called as the cell body. The
125 125 ``timeit`` magic receives both.
126 126
127 127 If you have 'automagic' enabled (as it by default), you don't need to type in
128 128 the single ``%`` explicitly for line magics; IPython will scan its internal
129 129 list of magic functions and call one if it exists. With automagic on you can
130 130 then just type ``cd mydir`` to go to directory 'mydir'::
131 131
132 132 In [9]: cd mydir
133 133 /home/fperez/mydir
134 134
135 135 Note that cell magics *always* require an explicit ``%%`` prefix, automagic
136 136 calling only works for line magics.
137 137
138 138 The automagic system has the lowest possible precedence in name searches, so
139 139 defining an identifier with the same name as an existing magic function will
140 140 shadow it for automagic use. You can still access the shadowed magic function
141 141 by explicitly using the ``%`` character at the beginning of the line.
142 142
143 143 An example (with automagic on) should clarify all this:
144 144
145 145 .. sourcecode:: ipython
146 146
147 147 In [1]: cd ipython # %cd is called by automagic
148 148 /home/fperez/ipython
149 149
150 150 In [2]: cd=1 # now cd is just a variable
151 151
152 152 In [3]: cd .. # and doesn't work as a function anymore
153 153 File "<ipython-input-3-9fedb3aff56c>", line 1
154 154 cd ..
155 155 ^
156 156 SyntaxError: invalid syntax
157 157
158 158
159 159 In [4]: %cd .. # but %cd always works
160 160 /home/fperez
161 161
162 162 In [5]: del cd # if you remove the cd variable, automagic works again
163 163
164 164 In [6]: cd ipython
165 165
166 166 /home/fperez/ipython
167 167
168 168 Defining your own magics
169 169 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
170 170
171 171 There are two main ways to define your own magic functions: from standalone
172 172 functions and by inheriting from a base class provided by IPython:
173 173 :class:`IPython.core.magic.Magics`. Below we show code you can place in a file
174 174 that you load from your configuration, such as any file in the ``startup``
175 175 subdirectory of your default IPython profile.
176 176
177 177 First, let us see the simplest case. The following shows how to create a line
178 178 magic, a cell one and one that works in both modes, using just plain functions:
179 179
180 180 .. sourcecode:: python
181 181
182 182 from IPython.core.magic import (register_line_magic, register_cell_magic,
183 183 register_line_cell_magic)
184 184
185 185 @register_line_magic
186 186 def lmagic(line):
187 187 "my line magic"
188 188 return line
189 189
190 190 @register_cell_magic
191 191 def cmagic(line, cell):
192 192 "my cell magic"
193 193 return line, cell
194 194
195 195 @register_line_cell_magic
196 196 def lcmagic(line, cell=None):
197 197 "Magic that works both as %lcmagic and as %%lcmagic"
198 198 if cell is None:
199 199 print "Called as line magic"
200 200 return line
201 201 else:
202 202 print "Called as cell magic"
203 203 return line, cell
204 204
205 205 # We delete these to avoid name conflicts for automagic to work
206 206 del lmagic, lcmagic
207 207
208 208
209 209 You can also create magics of all three kinds by inheriting from the
210 210 :class:`IPython.core.magic.Magics` class. This lets you create magics that can
211 211 potentially hold state in between calls, and that have full access to the main
212 212 IPython object:
213 213
214 214 .. sourcecode:: python
215 215
216 216 # This code can be put in any Python module, it does not require IPython
217 217 # itself to be running already. It only creates the magics subclass but
218 218 # doesn't instantiate it yet.
219 219 from IPython.core.magic import (Magics, magics_class, line_magic,
220 220 cell_magic, line_cell_magic)
221 221
222 222 # The class MUST call this class decorator at creation time
223 223 @magics_class
224 224 class MyMagics(Magics):
225 225
226 226 @line_magic
227 227 def lmagic(self, line):
228 228 "my line magic"
229 229 print "Full access to the main IPython object:", self.shell
230 230 print "Variables in the user namespace:", self.shell.user_ns.keys()
231 231 return line
232 232
233 233 @cell_magic
234 234 def cmagic(self, line, cell):
235 235 "my cell magic"
236 236 return line, cell
237 237
238 238 @line_cell_magic
239 239 def lcmagic(self, line, cell=None):
240 240 "Magic that works both as %lcmagic and as %%lcmagic"
241 241 if cell is None:
242 242 print "Called as line magic"
243 243 return line
244 244 else:
245 245 print "Called as cell magic"
246 246 return line, cell
247 247
248 248
249 249 # In order to actually use these magics, you must register them with a
250 250 # running IPython. This code must be placed in a file that is loaded once
251 251 # IPython is up and running:
252 252 ip = get_ipython()
253 253 # You can register the class itself without instantiating it. IPython will
254 254 # call the default constructor on it.
255 255 ip.register_magics(MyMagics)
256 256
257 257 If you want to create a class with a different constructor that holds
258 258 additional state, then you should always call the parent constructor and
259 259 instantiate the class yourself before registration:
260 260
261 261 .. sourcecode:: python
262 262
263 263 @magics_class
264 264 class StatefulMagics(Magics):
265 265 "Magics that hold additional state"
266 266
267 267 def __init__(self, shell, data):
268 268 # You must call the parent constructor
269 269 super(StatefulMagics, self).__init__(shell)
270 270 self.data = data
271 271
272 272 # etc...
273 273
274 274 # This class must then be registered with a manually created instance,
275 275 # since its constructor has different arguments from the default:
276 276 ip = get_ipython()
277 277 magics = StatefulMagics(ip, some_data)
278 278 ip.register_magics(magics)
279 279
280 280
281 281 In earlier versions, IPython had an API for the creation of line magics (cell
282 282 magics did not exist at the time) that required you to create functions with a
283 283 method-looking signature and to manually pass both the function and the name.
284 284 While this API is no longer recommended, it remains indefinitely supported for
285 285 backwards compatibility purposes. With the old API, you'd create a magic as
286 286 follows:
287 287
288 288 .. sourcecode:: python
289 289
290 290 def func(self, line):
291 291 print "Line magic called with line:", line
292 292 print "IPython object:", self.shell
293 293
294 294 ip = get_ipython()
295 295 # Declare this function as the magic %mycommand
296 296 ip.define_magic('mycommand', func)
297 297
298 298 Type ``%magic`` for more information, including a list of all available magic
299 299 functions at any time and their docstrings. You can also type
300 300 ``%magic_function_name?`` (see :ref:`below <dynamic_object_info>` for
301 301 information on the '?' system) to get information about any particular magic
302 302 function you are interested in.
303 303
304 304 The API documentation for the :mod:`IPython.core.magic` module contains the full
305 305 docstrings of all currently available magic commands.
306 306
307 307
308 308 Access to the standard Python help
309 309 ----------------------------------
310 310
311 311 Simply type ``help()`` to access Python's standard help system. You can
312 312 also type ``help(object)`` for information about a given object, or
313 313 ``help('keyword')`` for information on a keyword. You may need to configure your
314 314 PYTHONDOCS environment variable for this feature to work correctly.
315 315
316 316 .. _dynamic_object_info:
317 317
318 318 Dynamic object information
319 319 --------------------------
320 320
321 321 Typing ``?word`` or ``word?`` prints detailed information about an object. If
322 322 certain strings in the object are too long (e.g. function signatures) they get
323 323 snipped in the center for brevity. This system gives access variable types and
324 324 values, docstrings, function prototypes and other useful information.
325 325
326 326 If the information will not fit in the terminal, it is displayed in a pager
327 327 (``less`` if available, otherwise a basic internal pager).
328 328
329 329 Typing ``??word`` or ``word??`` gives access to the full information, including
330 330 the source code where possible. Long strings are not snipped.
331 331
332 332 The following magic functions are particularly useful for gathering
333 333 information about your working environment. You can get more details by
334 334 typing ``%magic`` or querying them individually (``%function_name?``);
335 335 this is just a summary:
336 336
337 337 * **%pdoc <object>**: Print (or run through a pager if too long) the
338 338 docstring for an object. If the given object is a class, it will
339 339 print both the class and the constructor docstrings.
340 340 * **%pdef <object>**: Print the call signature for any callable
341 341 object. If the object is a class, print the constructor information.
342 342 * **%psource <object>**: Print (or run through a pager if too long)
343 343 the source code for an object.
344 344 * **%pfile <object>**: Show the entire source file where an object was
345 345 defined via a pager, opening it at the line where the object
346 346 definition begins.
347 347 * **%who/%whos**: These functions give information about identifiers
348 348 you have defined interactively (not things you loaded or defined
349 349 in your configuration files). %who just prints a list of
350 350 identifiers and %whos prints a table with some basic details about
351 351 each identifier.
352 352
353 353 Note that the dynamic object information functions (?/??, ``%pdoc``,
354 354 ``%pfile``, ``%pdef``, ``%psource``) work on object attributes, as well as
355 355 directly on variables. For example, after doing ``import os``, you can use
356 356 ``os.path.abspath??``.
357 357
358 358 .. _readline:
359 359
360 360 Readline-based features
361 361 -----------------------
362 362
363 363 These features require the GNU readline library, so they won't work if your
364 364 Python installation lacks readline support. We will first describe the default
365 365 behavior IPython uses, and then how to change it to suit your preferences.
366 366
367 367
368 368 Command line completion
369 369 +++++++++++++++++++++++
370 370
371 371 At any time, hitting TAB will complete any available python commands or
372 372 variable names, and show you a list of the possible completions if
373 373 there's no unambiguous one. It will also complete filenames in the
374 374 current directory if no python names match what you've typed so far.
375 375
376 376
377 377 Search command history
378 378 ++++++++++++++++++++++
379 379
380 380 IPython provides two ways for searching through previous input and thus
381 381 reduce the need for repetitive typing:
382 382
383 383 1. Start typing, and then use Ctrl-p (previous,up) and Ctrl-n
384 384 (next,down) to search through only the history items that match
385 385 what you've typed so far. If you use Ctrl-p/Ctrl-n at a blank
386 386 prompt, they just behave like normal arrow keys.
387 387 2. Hit Ctrl-r: opens a search prompt. Begin typing and the system
388 388 searches your history for lines that contain what you've typed so
389 389 far, completing as much as it can.
390 390
391 391
392 392 Persistent command history across sessions
393 393 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
394 394
395 395 IPython will save your input history when it leaves and reload it next
396 396 time you restart it. By default, the history file is named
397 397 $IPYTHONDIR/profile_<name>/history.sqlite. This allows you to keep
398 398 separate histories related to various tasks: commands related to
399 399 numerical work will not be clobbered by a system shell history, for
400 400 example.
401 401
402 402
403 403 Autoindent
404 404 ++++++++++
405 405
406 406 IPython can recognize lines ending in ':' and indent the next line,
407 407 while also un-indenting automatically after 'raise' or 'return'.
408 408
409 409 This feature uses the readline library, so it will honor your
410 410 :file:`~/.inputrc` configuration (or whatever file your INPUTRC variable points
411 411 to). Adding the following lines to your :file:`.inputrc` file can make
412 412 indenting/unindenting more convenient (M-i indents, M-u unindents)::
413 413
414 414 $if Python
415 415 "\M-i": " "
416 416 "\M-u": "\d\d\d\d"
417 417 $endif
418 418
419 419 Note that there are 4 spaces between the quote marks after "M-i" above.
420 420
421 421 .. warning::
422 422
423 423 Setting the above indents will cause problems with unicode text entry in
424 424 the terminal.
425 425
426 426 .. warning::
427 427
428 428 Autoindent is ON by default, but it can cause problems with the pasting of
429 429 multi-line indented code (the pasted code gets re-indented on each line). A
430 430 magic function %autoindent allows you to toggle it on/off at runtime. You
431 431 can also disable it permanently on in your :file:`ipython_config.py` file
432 432 (set TerminalInteractiveShell.autoindent=False).
433 433
434 434 If you want to paste multiple lines in the terminal, it is recommended that
435 435 you use ``%paste``.
436 436
437 437
438 438 Customizing readline behavior
439 439 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
440 440
441 441 All these features are based on the GNU readline library, which has an
442 442 extremely customizable interface. Normally, readline is configured via a
443 443 file which defines the behavior of the library; the details of the
444 444 syntax for this can be found in the readline documentation available
445 445 with your system or on the Internet. IPython doesn't read this file (if
446 446 it exists) directly, but it does support passing to readline valid
447 447 options via a simple interface. In brief, you can customize readline by
448 448 setting the following options in your configuration file (note
449 449 that these options can not be specified at the command line):
450 450
451 451 * **readline_parse_and_bind**: this holds a list of strings to be executed
452 452 via a readline.parse_and_bind() command. The syntax for valid commands
453 453 of this kind can be found by reading the documentation for the GNU
454 454 readline library, as these commands are of the kind which readline
455 455 accepts in its configuration file.
456 456 * **readline_remove_delims**: a string of characters to be removed
457 457 from the default word-delimiters list used by readline, so that
458 458 completions may be performed on strings which contain them. Do not
459 459 change the default value unless you know what you're doing.
460 460
461 461 You will find the default values in your configuration file.
462 462
463 463
464 464 Session logging and restoring
465 465 -----------------------------
466 466
467 467 You can log all input from a session either by starting IPython with the
468 468 command line switch ``--logfile=foo.py`` (see :ref:`here <command_line_options>`)
469 469 or by activating the logging at any moment with the magic function %logstart.
470 470
471 471 Log files can later be reloaded by running them as scripts and IPython
472 472 will attempt to 'replay' the log by executing all the lines in it, thus
473 473 restoring the state of a previous session. This feature is not quite
474 474 perfect, but can still be useful in many cases.
475 475
476 476 The log files can also be used as a way to have a permanent record of
477 477 any code you wrote while experimenting. Log files are regular text files
478 478 which you can later open in your favorite text editor to extract code or
479 479 to 'clean them up' before using them to replay a session.
480 480
481 481 The `%logstart` function for activating logging in mid-session is used as
482 482 follows::
483 483
484 484 %logstart [log_name [log_mode]]
485 485
486 486 If no name is given, it defaults to a file named 'ipython_log.py' in your
487 487 current working directory, in 'rotate' mode (see below).
488 488
489 489 '%logstart name' saves to file 'name' in 'backup' mode. It saves your
490 490 history up to that point and then continues logging.
491 491
492 492 %logstart takes a second optional parameter: logging mode. This can be
493 493 one of (note that the modes are given unquoted):
494 494
495 495 * [over:] overwrite existing log_name.
496 496 * [backup:] rename (if exists) to log_name~ and start log_name.
497 497 * [append:] well, that says it.
498 498 * [rotate:] create rotating logs log_name.1~, log_name.2~, etc.
499 499
500 500 The %logoff and %logon functions allow you to temporarily stop and
501 501 resume logging to a file which had previously been started with
502 502 %logstart. They will fail (with an explanation) if you try to use them
503 503 before logging has been started.
504 504
505 505 .. _system_shell_access:
506 506
507 507 System shell access
508 508 -------------------
509 509
510 510 Any input line beginning with a ! character is passed verbatim (minus
511 511 the !, of course) to the underlying operating system. For example,
512 512 typing ``!ls`` will run 'ls' in the current directory.
513 513
514 514 Manual capture of command output
515 515 --------------------------------
516 516
517 517 You can assign the result of a system command to a Python variable with the
518 518 syntax ``myfiles = !ls``. This gets machine readable output from stdout
519 519 (e.g. without colours), and splits on newlines. To explicitly get this sort of
520 520 output without assigning to a variable, use two exclamation marks (``!!ls``) or
521 521 the ``%sx`` magic command.
522 522
523 523 The captured list has some convenience features. ``myfiles.n`` or ``myfiles.s``
524 524 returns a string delimited by newlines or spaces, respectively. ``myfiles.p``
525 525 produces `path objects <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/path.py>`_ from the list items.
526 526 See :ref:`string_lists` for details.
527 527
528 528 IPython also allows you to expand the value of python variables when
529 529 making system calls. Wrap variables or expressions in {braces}::
530 530
531 531 In [1]: pyvar = 'Hello world'
532 532 In [2]: !echo "A python variable: {pyvar}"
533 533 A python variable: Hello world
534 534 In [3]: import math
535 535 In [4]: x = 8
536 536 In [5]: !echo {math.factorial(x)}
537 537 40320
538 538
539 539 For simple cases, you can alternatively prepend $ to a variable name::
540 540
541 541 In [6]: !echo $sys.argv
542 542 [/home/fperez/usr/bin/ipython]
543 543 In [7]: !echo "A system variable: $$HOME" # Use $$ for literal $
544 544 A system variable: /home/fperez
545 545
546 546 System command aliases
547 547 ----------------------
548 548
549 549 The %alias magic function allows you to define magic functions which are in fact
550 550 system shell commands. These aliases can have parameters.
551 551
552 552 ``%alias alias_name cmd`` defines 'alias_name' as an alias for 'cmd'
553 553
554 554 Then, typing ``alias_name params`` will execute the system command 'cmd
555 555 params' (from your underlying operating system).
556 556
557 557 You can also define aliases with parameters using %s specifiers (one per
558 558 parameter). The following example defines the parts function as an
559 559 alias to the command 'echo first %s second %s' where each %s will be
560 560 replaced by a positional parameter to the call to %parts::
561 561
562 562 In [1]: %alias parts echo first %s second %s
563 563 In [2]: parts A B
564 564 first A second B
565 565 In [3]: parts A
566 566 ERROR: Alias <parts> requires 2 arguments, 1 given.
567 567
568 568 If called with no parameters, %alias prints the table of currently
569 569 defined aliases.
570 570
571 571 The %rehashx magic allows you to load your entire $PATH as
572 572 ipython aliases. See its docstring for further details.
573 573
574 574
575 575 .. _dreload:
576 576
577 577 Recursive reload
578 578 ----------------
579 579
580 580 The :mod:`IPython.lib.deepreload` module allows you to recursively reload a
581 581 module: changes made to any of its dependencies will be reloaded without
582 582 having to exit. To start using it, do::
583 583
584 584 from IPython.lib.deepreload import reload as dreload
585 585
586 586
587 587 Verbose and colored exception traceback printouts
588 588 -------------------------------------------------
589 589
590 590 IPython provides the option to see very detailed exception tracebacks,
591 591 which can be especially useful when debugging large programs. You can
592 592 run any Python file with the %run function to benefit from these
593 593 detailed tracebacks. Furthermore, both normal and verbose tracebacks can
594 594 be colored (if your terminal supports it) which makes them much easier
595 595 to parse visually.
596 596
597 597 See the magic xmode and colors functions for details (just type %magic).
598 598
599 599 These features are basically a terminal version of Ka-Ping Yee's cgitb
600 600 module, now part of the standard Python library.
601 601
602 602
603 603 .. _input_caching:
604 604
605 605 Input caching system
606 606 --------------------
607 607
608 608 IPython offers numbered prompts (In/Out) with input and output caching
609 609 (also referred to as 'input history'). All input is saved and can be
610 610 retrieved as variables (besides the usual arrow key recall), in
611 611 addition to the %rep magic command that brings a history entry
612 612 up for editing on the next command line.
613 613
614 614 The following GLOBAL variables always exist (so don't overwrite them!):
615 615
616 616 * _i, _ii, _iii: store previous, next previous and next-next previous inputs.
617 617 * In, _ih : a list of all inputs; _ih[n] is the input from line n. If you
618 618 overwrite In with a variable of your own, you can remake the assignment to the
619 619 internal list with a simple ``In=_ih``.
620 620
621 621 Additionally, global variables named _i<n> are dynamically created (<n>
622 622 being the prompt counter), so ``_i<n> == _ih[<n>] == In[<n>]``.
623 623
624 624 For example, what you typed at prompt 14 is available as _i14, _ih[14]
625 625 and In[14].
626 626
627 627 This allows you to easily cut and paste multi line interactive prompts
628 628 by printing them out: they print like a clean string, without prompt
629 629 characters. You can also manipulate them like regular variables (they
630 630 are strings), modify or exec them (typing ``exec _i9`` will re-execute the
631 631 contents of input prompt 9.
632 632
633 633 You can also re-execute multiple lines of input easily by using the
634 634 magic %rerun or %macro functions. The macro system also allows you to re-execute
635 635 previous lines which include magic function calls (which require special
636 636 processing). Type %macro? for more details on the macro system.
637 637
638 638 A history function %hist allows you to see any part of your input
639 639 history by printing a range of the _i variables.
640 640
641 641 You can also search ('grep') through your history by typing
642 642 ``%hist -g somestring``. This is handy for searching for URLs, IP addresses,
643 643 etc. You can bring history entries listed by '%hist -g' up for editing
644 644 with the %recall command, or run them immediately with %rerun.
645 645
646 646 .. _output_caching:
647 647
648 648 Output caching system
649 649 ---------------------
650 650
651 651 For output that is returned from actions, a system similar to the input
652 652 cache exists but using _ instead of _i. Only actions that produce a
653 653 result (NOT assignments, for example) are cached. If you are familiar
654 654 with Mathematica, IPython's _ variables behave exactly like
655 655 Mathematica's % variables.
656 656
657 657 The following GLOBAL variables always exist (so don't overwrite them!):
658 658
659 659 * [_] (a single underscore) : stores previous output, like Python's
660 660 default interpreter.
661 661 * [__] (two underscores): next previous.
662 662 * [___] (three underscores): next-next previous.
663 663
664 664 Additionally, global variables named _<n> are dynamically created (<n>
665 665 being the prompt counter), such that the result of output <n> is always
666 666 available as _<n> (don't use the angle brackets, just the number, e.g.
667 667 _21).
668 668
669 669 These variables are also stored in a global dictionary (not a
670 670 list, since it only has entries for lines which returned a result)
671 671 available under the names _oh and Out (similar to _ih and In). So the
672 672 output from line 12 can be obtained as _12, Out[12] or _oh[12]. If you
673 673 accidentally overwrite the Out variable you can recover it by typing
674 674 'Out=_oh' at the prompt.
675 675
676 676 This system obviously can potentially put heavy memory demands on your
677 677 system, since it prevents Python's garbage collector from removing any
678 678 previously computed results. You can control how many results are kept
679 679 in memory with the option (at the command line or in your configuration
680 680 file) cache_size. If you set it to 0, the whole system is completely
681 681 disabled and the prompts revert to the classic '>>>' of normal Python.
682 682
683 683
684 684 Directory history
685 685 -----------------
686 686
687 687 Your history of visited directories is kept in the global list _dh, and
688 688 the magic %cd command can be used to go to any entry in that list. The
689 689 %dhist command allows you to view this history. Do ``cd -<TAB>`` to
690 690 conveniently view the directory history.
691 691
692 692
693 693 Automatic parentheses and quotes
694 694 --------------------------------
695 695
696 696 These features were adapted from Nathan Gray's LazyPython. They are
697 697 meant to allow less typing for common situations.
698 698
699 699
700 700 Automatic parentheses
701 701 +++++++++++++++++++++
702 702
703 703 Callable objects (i.e. functions, methods, etc) can be invoked like this
704 704 (notice the commas between the arguments)::
705 705
706 706 In [1]: callable_ob arg1, arg2, arg3
707 707 ------> callable_ob(arg1, arg2, arg3)
708 708
709 709 You can force automatic parentheses by using '/' as the first character
710 710 of a line. For example::
711 711
712 712 In [2]: /globals # becomes 'globals()'
713 713
714 714 Note that the '/' MUST be the first character on the line! This won't work::
715 715
716 716 In [3]: print /globals # syntax error
717 717
718 718 In most cases the automatic algorithm should work, so you should rarely
719 719 need to explicitly invoke /. One notable exception is if you are trying
720 720 to call a function with a list of tuples as arguments (the parenthesis
721 721 will confuse IPython)::
722 722
723 723 In [4]: zip (1,2,3),(4,5,6) # won't work
724 724
725 725 but this will work::
726 726
727 727 In [5]: /zip (1,2,3),(4,5,6)
728 728 ------> zip ((1,2,3),(4,5,6))
729 729 Out[5]: [(1, 4), (2, 5), (3, 6)]
730 730
731 731 IPython tells you that it has altered your command line by displaying
732 732 the new command line preceded by ->. e.g.::
733 733
734 734 In [6]: callable list
735 735 ------> callable(list)
736 736
737 737
738 738 Automatic quoting
739 739 +++++++++++++++++
740 740
741 741 You can force automatic quoting of a function's arguments by using ','
742 742 or ';' as the first character of a line. For example::
743 743
744 744 In [1]: ,my_function /home/me # becomes my_function("/home/me")
745 745
746 746 If you use ';' the whole argument is quoted as a single string, while ',' splits
747 747 on whitespace::
748 748
749 749 In [2]: ,my_function a b c # becomes my_function("a","b","c")
750 750
751 751 In [3]: ;my_function a b c # becomes my_function("a b c")
752 752
753 753 Note that the ',' or ';' MUST be the first character on the line! This
754 754 won't work::
755 755
756 756 In [4]: x = ,my_function /home/me # syntax error
757 757
758 758 IPython as your default Python environment
759 759 ==========================================
760 760
761 761 Python honors the environment variable PYTHONSTARTUP and will execute at
762 762 startup the file referenced by this variable. If you put the following code at
763 763 the end of that file, then IPython will be your working environment anytime you
764 764 start Python::
765 765
766 766 from IPython.frontend.terminal.ipapp import launch_new_instance
767 767 launch_new_instance()
768 768 raise SystemExit
769 769
770 770 The ``raise SystemExit`` is needed to exit Python when
771 771 it finishes, otherwise you'll be back at the normal Python '>>>'
772 772 prompt.
773 773
774 774 This is probably useful to developers who manage multiple Python
775 775 versions and don't want to have correspondingly multiple IPython
776 776 versions. Note that in this mode, there is no way to pass IPython any
777 777 command-line options, as those are trapped first by Python itself.
778 778
779 779 .. _Embedding:
780 780
781 781 Embedding IPython
782 782 =================
783 783
784 784 It is possible to start an IPython instance inside your own Python
785 785 programs. This allows you to evaluate dynamically the state of your
786 786 code, operate with your variables, analyze them, etc. Note however that
787 787 any changes you make to values while in the shell do not propagate back
788 788 to the running code, so it is safe to modify your values because you
789 789 won't break your code in bizarre ways by doing so.
790 790
791 791 .. note::
792 792
793 793 At present, trying to embed IPython from inside IPython causes problems. Run
794 794 the code samples below outside IPython.
795 795
796 796 This feature allows you to easily have a fully functional python
797 797 environment for doing object introspection anywhere in your code with a
798 798 simple function call. In some cases a simple print statement is enough,
799 799 but if you need to do more detailed analysis of a code fragment this
800 800 feature can be very valuable.
801 801
802 802 It can also be useful in scientific computing situations where it is
803 803 common to need to do some automatic, computationally intensive part and
804 804 then stop to look at data, plots, etc.
805 805 Opening an IPython instance will give you full access to your data and
806 806 functions, and you can resume program execution once you are done with
807 807 the interactive part (perhaps to stop again later, as many times as
808 808 needed).
809 809
810 810 The following code snippet is the bare minimum you need to include in
811 811 your Python programs for this to work (detailed examples follow later)::
812 812
813 813 from IPython import embed
814 814
815 815 embed() # this call anywhere in your program will start IPython
816 816
817 817 .. note::
818 818
819 819 As of 0.13, you can embed an IPython *kernel*, for use with qtconsole,
820 820 etc. via ``IPython.embed_kernel()`` instead of ``IPython.embed()``.
821 821 It should function just the same as regular embed, but you connect
822 822 an external frontend rather than IPython starting up in the local
823 823 terminal.
824 824
825 825 You can run embedded instances even in code which is itself being run at
826 826 the IPython interactive prompt with '%run <filename>'. Since it's easy
827 827 to get lost as to where you are (in your top-level IPython or in your
828 828 embedded one), it's a good idea in such cases to set the in/out prompts
829 829 to something different for the embedded instances. The code examples
830 830 below illustrate this.
831 831
832 832 You can also have multiple IPython instances in your program and open
833 833 them separately, for example with different options for data
834 834 presentation. If you close and open the same instance multiple times,
835 835 its prompt counters simply continue from each execution to the next.
836 836
837 837 Please look at the docstrings in the :mod:`~IPython.frontend.terminal.embed`
838 838 module for more details on the use of this system.
839 839
840 840 The following sample file illustrating how to use the embedding
841 841 functionality is provided in the examples directory as example-embed.py.
842 842 It should be fairly self-explanatory:
843 843
844 .. literalinclude:: ../../examples/core/example-embed.py
844 .. literalinclude:: ../../../examples/core/example-embed.py
845 845 :language: python
846 846
847 847 Once you understand how the system functions, you can use the following
848 848 code fragments in your programs which are ready for cut and paste:
849 849
850 .. literalinclude:: ../../examples/core/example-embed-short.py
850 .. literalinclude:: ../../../examples/core/example-embed-short.py
851 851 :language: python
852 852
853 853 Using the Python debugger (pdb)
854 854 ===============================
855 855
856 856 Running entire programs via pdb
857 857 -------------------------------
858 858
859 859 pdb, the Python debugger, is a powerful interactive debugger which
860 860 allows you to step through code, set breakpoints, watch variables,
861 861 etc. IPython makes it very easy to start any script under the control
862 862 of pdb, regardless of whether you have wrapped it into a 'main()'
863 863 function or not. For this, simply type '%run -d myscript' at an
864 864 IPython prompt. See the %run command's documentation (via '%run?' or
865 865 in Sec. magic_ for more details, including how to control where pdb
866 866 will stop execution first.
867 867
868 868 For more information on the use of the pdb debugger, read the included
869 869 pdb.doc file (part of the standard Python distribution). On a stock
870 870 Linux system it is located at /usr/lib/python2.3/pdb.doc, but the
871 871 easiest way to read it is by using the help() function of the pdb module
872 872 as follows (in an IPython prompt)::
873 873
874 874 In [1]: import pdb
875 875 In [2]: pdb.help()
876 876
877 877 This will load the pdb.doc document in a file viewer for you automatically.
878 878
879 879
880 880 Automatic invocation of pdb on exceptions
881 881 -----------------------------------------
882 882
883 883 IPython, if started with the ``--pdb`` option (or if the option is set in
884 884 your config file) can call the Python pdb debugger every time your code
885 885 triggers an uncaught exception. This feature
886 886 can also be toggled at any time with the %pdb magic command. This can be
887 887 extremely useful in order to find the origin of subtle bugs, because pdb
888 888 opens up at the point in your code which triggered the exception, and
889 889 while your program is at this point 'dead', all the data is still
890 890 available and you can walk up and down the stack frame and understand
891 891 the origin of the problem.
892 892
893 893 Furthermore, you can use these debugging facilities both with the
894 894 embedded IPython mode and without IPython at all. For an embedded shell
895 895 (see sec. Embedding_), simply call the constructor with
896 896 ``--pdb`` in the argument string and pdb will automatically be called if an
897 897 uncaught exception is triggered by your code.
898 898
899 899 For stand-alone use of the feature in your programs which do not use
900 900 IPython at all, put the following lines toward the top of your 'main'
901 901 routine::
902 902
903 903 import sys
904 904 from IPython.core import ultratb
905 905 sys.excepthook = ultratb.FormattedTB(mode='Verbose',
906 906 color_scheme='Linux', call_pdb=1)
907 907
908 908 The mode keyword can be either 'Verbose' or 'Plain', giving either very
909 909 detailed or normal tracebacks respectively. The color_scheme keyword can
910 910 be one of 'NoColor', 'Linux' (default) or 'LightBG'. These are the same
911 911 options which can be set in IPython with ``--colors`` and ``--xmode``.
912 912
913 913 This will give any of your programs detailed, colored tracebacks with
914 914 automatic invocation of pdb.
915 915
916 916
917 917 Extensions for syntax processing
918 918 ================================
919 919
920 920 This isn't for the faint of heart, because the potential for breaking
921 921 things is quite high. But it can be a very powerful and useful feature.
922 922 In a nutshell, you can redefine the way IPython processes the user input
923 923 line to accept new, special extensions to the syntax without needing to
924 924 change any of IPython's own code.
925 925
926 926 In the IPython/extensions directory you will find some examples
927 927 supplied, which we will briefly describe now. These can be used 'as is'
928 928 (and both provide very useful functionality), or you can use them as a
929 929 starting point for writing your own extensions.
930 930
931 931 .. _pasting_with_prompts:
932 932
933 933 Pasting of code starting with Python or IPython prompts
934 934 -------------------------------------------------------
935 935
936 936 IPython is smart enough to filter out input prompts, be they plain Python ones
937 937 (``>>>`` and ``...``) or IPython ones (``In [N]:`` and `` ...:``). You can
938 938 therefore copy and paste from existing interactive sessions without worry.
939 939
940 940 The following is a 'screenshot' of how things work, copying an example from the
941 941 standard Python tutorial::
942 942
943 943 In [1]: >>> # Fibonacci series:
944 944
945 945 In [2]: ... # the sum of two elements defines the next
946 946
947 947 In [3]: ... a, b = 0, 1
948 948
949 949 In [4]: >>> while b < 10:
950 950 ...: ... print b
951 951 ...: ... a, b = b, a+b
952 952 ...:
953 953 1
954 954 1
955 955 2
956 956 3
957 957 5
958 958 8
959 959
960 960 And pasting from IPython sessions works equally well::
961 961
962 962 In [1]: In [5]: def f(x):
963 963 ...: ...: "A simple function"
964 964 ...: ...: return x**2
965 965 ...: ...:
966 966
967 967 In [2]: f(3)
968 968 Out[2]: 9
969 969
970 970 .. _gui_support:
971 971
972 972 GUI event loop support
973 973 ======================
974 974
975 975 .. versionadded:: 0.11
976 976 The ``%gui`` magic and :mod:`IPython.lib.inputhook`.
977 977
978 978 IPython has excellent support for working interactively with Graphical User
979 979 Interface (GUI) toolkits, such as wxPython, PyQt4/PySide, PyGTK and Tk. This is
980 980 implemented using Python's builtin ``PyOSInputHook`` hook. This implementation
981 981 is extremely robust compared to our previous thread-based version. The
982 982 advantages of this are:
983 983
984 984 * GUIs can be enabled and disabled dynamically at runtime.
985 985 * The active GUI can be switched dynamically at runtime.
986 986 * In some cases, multiple GUIs can run simultaneously with no problems.
987 987 * There is a developer API in :mod:`IPython.lib.inputhook` for customizing
988 988 all of these things.
989 989
990 990 For users, enabling GUI event loop integration is simple. You simple use the
991 991 ``%gui`` magic as follows::
992 992
993 993 %gui [GUINAME]
994 994
995 995 With no arguments, ``%gui`` removes all GUI support. Valid ``GUINAME``
996 996 arguments are ``wx``, ``qt``, ``gtk`` and ``tk``.
997 997
998 998 Thus, to use wxPython interactively and create a running :class:`wx.App`
999 999 object, do::
1000 1000
1001 1001 %gui wx
1002 1002
1003 1003 For information on IPython's Matplotlib integration (and the ``pylab`` mode)
1004 1004 see :ref:`this section <matplotlib_support>`.
1005 1005
1006 1006 For developers that want to use IPython's GUI event loop integration in the
1007 1007 form of a library, these capabilities are exposed in library form in the
1008 1008 :mod:`IPython.lib.inputhook` and :mod:`IPython.lib.guisupport` modules.
1009 1009 Interested developers should see the module docstrings for more information,
1010 1010 but there are a few points that should be mentioned here.
1011 1011
1012 1012 First, the ``PyOSInputHook`` approach only works in command line settings
1013 1013 where readline is activated. The integration with various eventloops
1014 1014 is handled somewhat differently (and more simply) when using the standalone
1015 1015 kernel, as in the qtconsole and notebook.
1016 1016
1017 1017 Second, when using the ``PyOSInputHook`` approach, a GUI application should
1018 1018 *not* start its event loop. Instead all of this is handled by the
1019 1019 ``PyOSInputHook``. This means that applications that are meant to be used both
1020 1020 in IPython and as standalone apps need to have special code to detects how the
1021 1021 application is being run. We highly recommend using IPython's support for this.
1022 1022 Since the details vary slightly between toolkits, we point you to the various
1023 1023 examples in our source directory :file:`docs/examples/lib` that demonstrate
1024 1024 these capabilities.
1025 1025
1026 1026 Third, unlike previous versions of IPython, we no longer "hijack" (replace
1027 1027 them with no-ops) the event loops. This is done to allow applications that
1028 1028 actually need to run the real event loops to do so. This is often needed to
1029 1029 process pending events at critical points.
1030 1030
1031 1031 Finally, we also have a number of examples in our source directory
1032 1032 :file:`docs/examples/lib` that demonstrate these capabilities.
1033 1033
1034 1034 PyQt and PySide
1035 1035 ---------------
1036 1036
1037 1037 .. attempt at explanation of the complete mess that is Qt support
1038 1038
1039 1039 When you use ``--gui=qt`` or ``--pylab=qt``, IPython can work with either
1040 1040 PyQt4 or PySide. There are three options for configuration here, because
1041 1041 PyQt4 has two APIs for QString and QVariant - v1, which is the default on
1042 1042 Python 2, and the more natural v2, which is the only API supported by PySide.
1043 1043 v2 is also the default for PyQt4 on Python 3. IPython's code for the QtConsole
1044 1044 uses v2, but you can still use any interface in your code, since the
1045 1045 Qt frontend is in a different process.
1046 1046
1047 1047 The default will be to import PyQt4 without configuration of the APIs, thus
1048 1048 matching what most applications would expect. It will fall back of PySide if
1049 1049 PyQt4 is unavailable.
1050 1050
1051 1051 If specified, IPython will respect the environment variable ``QT_API`` used
1052 1052 by ETS. ETS 4.0 also works with both PyQt4 and PySide, but it requires
1053 1053 PyQt4 to use its v2 API. So if ``QT_API=pyside`` PySide will be used,
1054 1054 and if ``QT_API=pyqt`` then PyQt4 will be used *with the v2 API* for
1055 1055 QString and QVariant, so ETS codes like MayaVi will also work with IPython.
1056 1056
1057 1057 If you launch IPython in pylab mode with ``ipython --pylab=qt``, then IPython
1058 1058 will ask matplotlib which Qt library to use (only if QT_API is *not set*), via
1059 1059 the 'backend.qt4' rcParam. If matplotlib is version 1.0.1 or older, then
1060 1060 IPython will always use PyQt4 without setting the v2 APIs, since neither v2
1061 1061 PyQt nor PySide work.
1062 1062
1063 1063 .. warning::
1064 1064
1065 1065 Note that this means for ETS 4 to work with PyQt4, ``QT_API`` *must* be set
1066 1066 to work with IPython's qt integration, because otherwise PyQt4 will be
1067 1067 loaded in an incompatible mode.
1068 1068
1069 1069 It also means that you must *not* have ``QT_API`` set if you want to
1070 1070 use ``--gui=qt`` with code that requires PyQt4 API v1.
1071 1071
1072 1072
1073 1073 .. _matplotlib_support:
1074 1074
1075 1075 Plotting with matplotlib
1076 1076 ========================
1077 1077
1078 1078 `Matplotlib`_ provides high quality 2D and 3D plotting for Python. Matplotlib
1079 1079 can produce plots on screen using a variety of GUI toolkits, including Tk,
1080 1080 PyGTK, PyQt4 and wxPython. It also provides a number of commands useful for
1081 1081 scientific computing, all with a syntax compatible with that of the popular
1082 1082 Matlab program.
1083 1083
1084 1084 To start IPython with matplotlib support, use the ``--pylab`` switch. If no
1085 1085 arguments are given, IPython will automatically detect your choice of
1086 1086 matplotlib backend. You can also request a specific backend with ``--pylab
1087 1087 backend``, where ``backend`` must be one of: 'tk', 'qt', 'wx', 'gtk', 'osx'.
1088 1088 In the web notebook and Qt console, 'inline' is also a valid backend value,
1089 1089 which produces static figures inlined inside the application window instead of
1090 1090 matplotlib's interactive figures that live in separate windows.
1091 1091
1092 1092 .. _Matplotlib: http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net
1093 1093
1094 1094 .. _interactive_demos:
1095 1095
1096 1096 Interactive demos with IPython
1097 1097 ==============================
1098 1098
1099 1099 IPython ships with a basic system for running scripts interactively in
1100 1100 sections, useful when presenting code to audiences. A few tags embedded
1101 1101 in comments (so that the script remains valid Python code) divide a file
1102 1102 into separate blocks, and the demo can be run one block at a time, with
1103 1103 IPython printing (with syntax highlighting) the block before executing
1104 1104 it, and returning to the interactive prompt after each block. The
1105 1105 interactive namespace is updated after each block is run with the
1106 1106 contents of the demo's namespace.
1107 1107
1108 1108 This allows you to show a piece of code, run it and then execute
1109 1109 interactively commands based on the variables just created. Once you
1110 1110 want to continue, you simply execute the next block of the demo. The
1111 1111 following listing shows the markup necessary for dividing a script into
1112 1112 sections for execution as a demo:
1113 1113
1114 .. literalinclude:: ../../examples/lib/example-demo.py
1114 .. literalinclude:: ../../../examples/lib/example-demo.py
1115 1115 :language: python
1116 1116
1117 1117 In order to run a file as a demo, you must first make a Demo object out
1118 1118 of it. If the file is named myscript.py, the following code will make a
1119 1119 demo::
1120 1120
1121 1121 from IPython.lib.demo import Demo
1122 1122
1123 1123 mydemo = Demo('myscript.py')
1124 1124
1125 1125 This creates the mydemo object, whose blocks you run one at a time by
1126 1126 simply calling the object with no arguments. If you have autocall active
1127 1127 in IPython (the default), all you need to do is type::
1128 1128
1129 1129 mydemo
1130 1130
1131 1131 and IPython will call it, executing each block. Demo objects can be
1132 1132 restarted, you can move forward or back skipping blocks, re-execute the
1133 1133 last block, etc. Simply use the Tab key on a demo object to see its
1134 1134 methods, and call '?' on them to see their docstrings for more usage
1135 1135 details. In addition, the demo module itself contains a comprehensive
1136 1136 docstring, which you can access via::
1137 1137
1138 1138 from IPython.lib import demo
1139 1139
1140 1140 demo?
1141 1141
1142 1142 Limitations: It is important to note that these demos are limited to
1143 1143 fairly simple uses. In particular, you cannot break up sections within
1144 1144 indented code (loops, if statements, function definitions, etc.)
1145 1145 Supporting something like this would basically require tracking the
1146 1146 internal execution state of the Python interpreter, so only top-level
1147 1147 divisions are allowed. If you want to be able to open an IPython
1148 1148 instance at an arbitrary point in a program, you can use IPython's
1149 1149 embedding facilities, see :func:`IPython.embed` for details.
1150 1150
@@ -1,150 +1,150 b''
1 1 .. _parallel_asyncresult:
2 2
3 3 ======================
4 4 The AsyncResult object
5 5 ======================
6 6
7 7 In non-blocking mode, :meth:`apply` submits the command to be executed and
8 8 then returns a :class:`~.AsyncResult` object immediately. The
9 9 AsyncResult object gives you a way of getting a result at a later
10 10 time through its :meth:`get` method, but it also collects metadata
11 11 on execution.
12 12
13 13
14 14 Beyond multiprocessing's AsyncResult
15 15 ====================================
16 16
17 17 .. Note::
18 18
19 19 The :class:`~.AsyncResult` object provides a superset of the interface in
20 20 :py:class:`multiprocessing.pool.AsyncResult`. See the
21 21 `official Python documentation <http://docs.python.org/library/multiprocessing#multiprocessing.pool.AsyncResult>`_
22 22 for more on the basics of this interface.
23 23
24 24 Our AsyncResult objects add a number of convenient features for working with
25 25 parallel results, beyond what is provided by the original AsyncResult.
26 26
27 27
28 28 get_dict
29 29 --------
30 30
31 31 First, is :meth:`.AsyncResult.get_dict`, which pulls results as a dictionary
32 32 keyed by engine_id, rather than a flat list. This is useful for quickly
33 33 coordinating or distributing information about all of the engines.
34 34
35 35 As an example, here is a quick call that gives every engine a dict showing
36 36 the PID of every other engine:
37 37
38 38 .. sourcecode:: ipython
39 39
40 40 In [10]: ar = rc[:].apply_async(os.getpid)
41 41 In [11]: pids = ar.get_dict()
42 42 In [12]: rc[:]['pid_map'] = pids
43 43
44 44 This trick is particularly useful when setting up inter-engine communication,
45 45 as in IPython's :file:`examples/parallel/interengine` examples.
46 46
47 47
48 48 Metadata
49 49 ========
50 50
51 51 IPython.parallel tracks some metadata about the tasks, which is stored
52 52 in the :attr:`.Client.metadata` dict. The AsyncResult object gives you an
53 53 interface for this information as well, including timestamps stdout/err,
54 54 and engine IDs.
55 55
56 56
57 57 Timing
58 58 ------
59 59
60 60 IPython tracks various timestamps as :py:class:`.datetime` objects,
61 61 and the AsyncResult object has a few properties that turn these into useful
62 62 times (in seconds as floats).
63 63
64 64 For use while the tasks are still pending:
65 65
66 66 * :attr:`ar.elapsed` is just the elapsed seconds since submission, for use
67 67 before the AsyncResult is complete.
68 68 * :attr:`ar.progress` is the number of tasks that have completed. Fractional progress
69 69 would be::
70 70
71 71 1.0 * ar.progress / len(ar)
72 72
73 73 * :meth:`AsyncResult.wait_interactive` will wait for the result to finish, but
74 74 print out status updates on progress and elapsed time while it waits.
75 75
76 76 For use after the tasks are done:
77 77
78 78 * :attr:`ar.serial_time` is the sum of the computation time of all of the tasks
79 79 done in parallel.
80 80 * :attr:`ar.wall_time` is the time between the first task submitted and last result
81 81 received. This is the actual cost of computation, including IPython overhead.
82 82
83 83
84 84 .. note::
85 85
86 86 wall_time is only precise if the Client is waiting for results when
87 87 the task finished, because the `received` timestamp is made when the result is
88 88 unpacked by the Client, triggered by the :meth:`~Client.spin` call. If you
89 89 are doing work in the Client, and not waiting/spinning, then `received` might
90 90 be artificially high.
91 91
92 92 An often interesting metric is the time it actually cost to do the work in parallel
93 93 relative to the serial computation, and this can be given simply with
94 94
95 95 .. sourcecode:: python
96 96
97 97 speedup = ar.serial_time / ar.wall_time
98 98
99 99
100 100 Map results are iterable!
101 101 =========================
102 102
103 103 When an AsyncResult object has multiple results (e.g. the :class:`~AsyncMapResult`
104 104 object), you can actually iterate through results themselves, and act on them as they arrive:
105 105
106 .. literalinclude:: ../../examples/parallel/itermapresult.py
106 .. literalinclude:: ../../../examples/parallel/itermapresult.py
107 107 :language: python
108 108 :lines: 20-67
109 109
110 110 That is to say, if you treat an AsyncMapResult as if it were a list of your actual
111 111 results, it should behave as you would expect, with the only difference being
112 112 that you can start iterating through the results before they have even been computed.
113 113
114 114 This lets you do a dumb version of map/reduce with the builtin Python functions,
115 115 and the only difference between doing this locally and doing it remotely in parallel
116 116 is using the asynchronous view.map instead of the builtin map.
117 117
118 118
119 119 Here is a simple one-line RMS (root-mean-square) implemented with Python's builtin map/reduce.
120 120
121 121 .. sourcecode:: ipython
122 122
123 123 In [38]: X = np.linspace(0,100)
124 124
125 125 In [39]: from math import sqrt
126 126
127 127 In [40]: add = lambda a,b: a+b
128 128
129 129 In [41]: sq = lambda x: x*x
130 130
131 131 In [42]: sqrt(reduce(add, map(sq, X)) / len(X))
132 132 Out[42]: 58.028845747399714
133 133
134 134 In [43]: sqrt(reduce(add, view.map(sq, X)) / len(X))
135 135 Out[43]: 58.028845747399714
136 136
137 137 To break that down:
138 138
139 139 1. ``map(sq, X)`` Compute the square of each element in the list (locally, or in parallel)
140 140 2. ``reduce(add, sqX) / len(X)`` compute the mean by summing over the list (or AsyncMapResult)
141 141 and dividing by the size
142 142 3. take the square root of the resulting number
143 143
144 144 .. seealso::
145 145
146 146 When AsyncResult or the AsyncMapResult don't provide what you need (for instance,
147 147 handling individual results as they arrive, but with metadata), you can always
148 148 just split the original result's ``msg_ids`` attribute, and handle them as you like.
149 149
150 150 For an example of this, see :file:`docs/examples/parallel/customresult.py`
@@ -1,177 +1,177 b''
1 1 .. _dag_dependencies:
2 2
3 3 ================
4 4 DAG Dependencies
5 5 ================
6 6
7 7 Often, parallel workflow is described in terms of a `Directed Acyclic Graph
8 8 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed_acyclic_graph>`_ or DAG. A popular library
9 9 for working with Graphs is NetworkX_. Here, we will walk through a demo mapping
10 10 a nx DAG to task dependencies.
11 11
12 12 The full script that runs this demo can be found in
13 13 :file:`docs/examples/parallel/dagdeps.py`.
14 14
15 15 Why are DAGs good for task dependencies?
16 16 ----------------------------------------
17 17
18 18 The 'G' in DAG is 'Graph'. A Graph is a collection of **nodes** and **edges** that connect
19 19 the nodes. For our purposes, each node would be a task, and each edge would be a
20 20 dependency. The 'D' in DAG stands for 'Directed'. This means that each edge has a
21 21 direction associated with it. So we can interpret the edge (a,b) as meaning that b depends
22 22 on a, whereas the edge (b,a) would mean a depends on b. The 'A' is 'Acyclic', meaning that
23 23 there must not be any closed loops in the graph. This is important for dependencies,
24 24 because if a loop were closed, then a task could ultimately depend on itself, and never be
25 25 able to run. If your workflow can be described as a DAG, then it is impossible for your
26 26 dependencies to cause a deadlock.
27 27
28 28 A Sample DAG
29 29 ------------
30 30
31 31 Here, we have a very simple 5-node DAG:
32 32
33 33 .. figure:: figs/simpledag.*
34 34 :width: 600px
35 35
36 36 With NetworkX, an arrow is just a fattened bit on the edge. Here, we can see that task 0
37 37 depends on nothing, and can run immediately. 1 and 2 depend on 0; 3 depends on
38 38 1 and 2; and 4 depends only on 1.
39 39
40 40 A possible sequence of events for this workflow:
41 41
42 42 0. Task 0 can run right away
43 43 1. 0 finishes, so 1,2 can start
44 44 2. 1 finishes, 3 is still waiting on 2, but 4 can start right away
45 45 3. 2 finishes, and 3 can finally start
46 46
47 47
48 48 Further, taking failures into account, assuming all dependencies are run with the default
49 49 `success=True,failure=False`, the following cases would occur for each node's failure:
50 50
51 51 0. fails: all other tasks fail as Impossible
52 52 1. 2 can still succeed, but 3,4 are unreachable
53 53 2. 3 becomes unreachable, but 4 is unaffected
54 54 3. and 4. are terminal, and can have no effect on other nodes
55 55
56 56 The code to generate the simple DAG:
57 57
58 58 .. sourcecode:: python
59 59
60 60 import networkx as nx
61 61
62 62 G = nx.DiGraph()
63 63
64 64 # add 5 nodes, labeled 0-4:
65 65 map(G.add_node, range(5))
66 66 # 1,2 depend on 0:
67 67 G.add_edge(0,1)
68 68 G.add_edge(0,2)
69 69 # 3 depends on 1,2
70 70 G.add_edge(1,3)
71 71 G.add_edge(2,3)
72 72 # 4 depends on 1
73 73 G.add_edge(1,4)
74 74
75 75 # now draw the graph:
76 76 pos = { 0 : (0,0), 1 : (1,1), 2 : (-1,1),
77 77 3 : (0,2), 4 : (2,2)}
78 78 nx.draw(G, pos, edge_color='r')
79 79
80 80
81 81 For demonstration purposes, we have a function that generates a random DAG with a given
82 82 number of nodes and edges.
83 83
84 .. literalinclude:: ../../examples/parallel/dagdeps.py
84 .. literalinclude:: ../../../examples/parallel/dagdeps.py
85 85 :language: python
86 86 :lines: 20-36
87 87
88 88 So first, we start with a graph of 32 nodes, with 128 edges:
89 89
90 90 .. sourcecode:: ipython
91 91
92 92 In [2]: G = random_dag(32,128)
93 93
94 94 Now, we need to build our dict of jobs corresponding to the nodes on the graph:
95 95
96 96 .. sourcecode:: ipython
97 97
98 98 In [3]: jobs = {}
99 99
100 100 # in reality, each job would presumably be different
101 101 # randomwait is just a function that sleeps for a random interval
102 102 In [4]: for node in G:
103 103 ...: jobs[node] = randomwait
104 104
105 105 Once we have a dict of jobs matching the nodes on the graph, we can start submitting jobs,
106 106 and linking up the dependencies. Since we don't know a job's msg_id until it is submitted,
107 107 which is necessary for building dependencies, it is critical that we don't submit any jobs
108 108 before other jobs it may depend on. Fortunately, NetworkX provides a
109 109 :meth:`topological_sort` method which ensures exactly this. It presents an iterable, that
110 110 guarantees that when you arrive at a node, you have already visited all the nodes it
111 111 on which it depends:
112 112
113 113 .. sourcecode:: ipython
114 114
115 115 In [5]: rc = Client()
116 116 In [5]: view = rc.load_balanced_view()
117 117
118 118 In [6]: results = {}
119 119
120 120 In [7]: for node in G.topological_sort():
121 121 ...: # get list of AsyncResult objects from nodes
122 122 ...: # leading into this one as dependencies
123 123 ...: deps = [ results[n] for n in G.predecessors(node) ]
124 124 ...: # submit and store AsyncResult object
125 125 ...: with view.temp_flags(after=deps, block=False):
126 126 ...: results[node] = view.apply_with_flags(jobs[node])
127 127
128 128
129 129 Now that we have submitted all the jobs, we can wait for the results:
130 130
131 131 .. sourcecode:: ipython
132 132
133 133 In [8]: view.wait(results.values())
134 134
135 135 Now, at least we know that all the jobs ran and did not fail (``r.get()`` would have
136 136 raised an error if a task failed). But we don't know that the ordering was properly
137 137 respected. For this, we can use the :attr:`metadata` attribute of each AsyncResult.
138 138
139 139 These objects store a variety of metadata about each task, including various timestamps.
140 140 We can validate that the dependencies were respected by checking that each task was
141 141 started after all of its predecessors were completed:
142 142
143 .. literalinclude:: ../../examples/parallel/dagdeps.py
143 .. literalinclude:: ../../../examples/parallel/dagdeps.py
144 144 :language: python
145 145 :lines: 64-70
146 146
147 147 We can also validate the graph visually. By drawing the graph with each node's x-position
148 148 as its start time, all arrows must be pointing to the right if dependencies were respected.
149 149 For spreading, the y-position will be the runtime of the task, so long tasks
150 150 will be at the top, and quick, small tasks will be at the bottom.
151 151
152 152 .. sourcecode:: ipython
153 153
154 154 In [10]: from matplotlib.dates import date2num
155 155
156 156 In [11]: from matplotlib.cm import gist_rainbow
157 157
158 158 In [12]: pos = {}; colors = {}
159 159
160 160 In [12]: for node in G:
161 161 ....: md = results[node].metadata
162 162 ....: start = date2num(md.started)
163 163 ....: runtime = date2num(md.completed) - start
164 164 ....: pos[node] = (start, runtime)
165 165 ....: colors[node] = md.engine_id
166 166
167 167 In [13]: nx.draw(G, pos, node_list=colors.keys(), node_color=colors.values(),
168 168 ....: cmap=gist_rainbow)
169 169
170 170 .. figure:: figs/dagdeps.*
171 171 :width: 600px
172 172
173 173 Time started on x, runtime on y, and color-coded by engine-id (in this case there
174 174 were four engines). Edges denote dependencies.
175 175
176 176
177 177 .. _NetworkX: http://networkx.lanl.gov/
@@ -1,277 +1,205 b''
1 1 .. _parallel_examples:
2 2
3 3 =================
4 4 Parallel examples
5 5 =================
6 6
7 7 In this section we describe two more involved examples of using an IPython
8 8 cluster to perform a parallel computation. In these examples, we will be using
9 9 IPython's "pylab" mode, which enables interactive plotting using the
10 10 Matplotlib package. IPython can be started in this mode by typing::
11 11
12 12 ipython --pylab
13 13
14 14 at the system command line.
15 15
16 16 150 million digits of pi
17 17 ========================
18 18
19 19 In this example we would like to study the distribution of digits in the
20 20 number pi (in base 10). While it is not known if pi is a normal number (a
21 21 number is normal in base 10 if 0-9 occur with equal likelihood) numerical
22 22 investigations suggest that it is. We will begin with a serial calculation on
23 23 10,000 digits of pi and then perform a parallel calculation involving 150
24 24 million digits.
25 25
26 26 In both the serial and parallel calculation we will be using functions defined
27 27 in the :file:`pidigits.py` file, which is available in the
28 28 :file:`docs/examples/parallel` directory of the IPython source distribution.
29 29 These functions provide basic facilities for working with the digits of pi and
30 30 can be loaded into IPython by putting :file:`pidigits.py` in your current
31 31 working directory and then doing:
32 32
33 33 .. sourcecode:: ipython
34 34
35 35 In [1]: run pidigits.py
36 36
37 37 Serial calculation
38 38 ------------------
39 39
40 40 For the serial calculation, we will use `SymPy <http://www.sympy.org>`_ to
41 41 calculate 10,000 digits of pi and then look at the frequencies of the digits
42 42 0-9. Out of 10,000 digits, we expect each digit to occur 1,000 times. While
43 43 SymPy is capable of calculating many more digits of pi, our purpose here is to
44 44 set the stage for the much larger parallel calculation.
45 45
46 46 In this example, we use two functions from :file:`pidigits.py`:
47 47 :func:`one_digit_freqs` (which calculates how many times each digit occurs)
48 48 and :func:`plot_one_digit_freqs` (which uses Matplotlib to plot the result).
49 49 Here is an interactive IPython session that uses these functions with
50 50 SymPy:
51 51
52 52 .. sourcecode:: ipython
53 53
54 54 In [7]: import sympy
55 55
56 56 In [8]: pi = sympy.pi.evalf(40)
57 57
58 58 In [9]: pi
59 59 Out[9]: 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197
60 60
61 61 In [10]: pi = sympy.pi.evalf(10000)
62 62
63 63 In [11]: digits = (d for d in str(pi)[2:]) # create a sequence of digits
64 64
65 65 In [12]: run pidigits.py # load one_digit_freqs/plot_one_digit_freqs
66 66
67 67 In [13]: freqs = one_digit_freqs(digits)
68 68
69 69 In [14]: plot_one_digit_freqs(freqs)
70 70 Out[14]: [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x18a55290>]
71 71
72 72 The resulting plot of the single digit counts shows that each digit occurs
73 73 approximately 1,000 times, but that with only 10,000 digits the
74 74 statistical fluctuations are still rather large:
75 75
76 76 .. image:: figs/single_digits.*
77 77
78 78 It is clear that to reduce the relative fluctuations in the counts, we need
79 79 to look at many more digits of pi. That brings us to the parallel calculation.
80 80
81 81 Parallel calculation
82 82 --------------------
83 83
84 84 Calculating many digits of pi is a challenging computational problem in itself.
85 85 Because we want to focus on the distribution of digits in this example, we
86 86 will use pre-computed digit of pi from the website of Professor Yasumasa
87 87 Kanada at the University of Tokyo (http://www.super-computing.org). These
88 88 digits come in a set of text files (ftp://pi.super-computing.org/.2/pi200m/)
89 89 that each have 10 million digits of pi.
90 90
91 91 For the parallel calculation, we have copied these files to the local hard
92 92 drives of the compute nodes. A total of 15 of these files will be used, for a
93 93 total of 150 million digits of pi. To make things a little more interesting we
94 94 will calculate the frequencies of all 2 digits sequences (00-99) and then plot
95 95 the result using a 2D matrix in Matplotlib.
96 96
97 97 The overall idea of the calculation is simple: each IPython engine will
98 98 compute the two digit counts for the digits in a single file. Then in a final
99 99 step the counts from each engine will be added up. To perform this
100 100 calculation, we will need two top-level functions from :file:`pidigits.py`:
101 101
102 .. literalinclude:: ../../examples/parallel/pi/pidigits.py
102 .. literalinclude:: ../../../examples/parallel/pi/pidigits.py
103 103 :language: python
104 104 :lines: 47-62
105 105
106 106 We will also use the :func:`plot_two_digit_freqs` function to plot the
107 107 results. The code to run this calculation in parallel is contained in
108 108 :file:`docs/examples/parallel/parallelpi.py`. This code can be run in parallel
109 109 using IPython by following these steps:
110 110
111 111 1. Use :command:`ipcluster` to start 15 engines. We used 16 cores of an SGE linux
112 112 cluster (1 controller + 15 engines).
113 113 2. With the file :file:`parallelpi.py` in your current working directory, open
114 114 up IPython in pylab mode and type ``run parallelpi.py``. This will download
115 115 the pi files via ftp the first time you run it, if they are not
116 116 present in the Engines' working directory.
117 117
118 118 When run on our 16 cores, we observe a speedup of 14.2x. This is slightly
119 119 less than linear scaling (16x) because the controller is also running on one of
120 120 the cores.
121 121
122 122 To emphasize the interactive nature of IPython, we now show how the
123 123 calculation can also be run by simply typing the commands from
124 124 :file:`parallelpi.py` interactively into IPython:
125 125
126 126 .. sourcecode:: ipython
127 127
128 128 In [1]: from IPython.parallel import Client
129 129
130 130 # The Client allows us to use the engines interactively.
131 131 # We simply pass Client the name of the cluster profile we
132 132 # are using.
133 133 In [2]: c = Client(profile='mycluster')
134 134 In [3]: v = c[:]
135 135
136 136 In [3]: c.ids
137 137 Out[3]: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14]
138 138
139 139 In [4]: run pidigits.py
140 140
141 141 In [5]: filestring = 'pi200m.ascii.%(i)02dof20'
142 142
143 143 # Create the list of files to process.
144 144 In [6]: files = [filestring % {'i':i} for i in range(1,16)]
145 145
146 146 In [7]: files
147 147 Out[7]:
148 148 ['pi200m.ascii.01of20',
149 149 'pi200m.ascii.02of20',
150 150 'pi200m.ascii.03of20',
151 151 'pi200m.ascii.04of20',
152 152 'pi200m.ascii.05of20',
153 153 'pi200m.ascii.06of20',
154 154 'pi200m.ascii.07of20',
155 155 'pi200m.ascii.08of20',
156 156 'pi200m.ascii.09of20',
157 157 'pi200m.ascii.10of20',
158 158 'pi200m.ascii.11of20',
159 159 'pi200m.ascii.12of20',
160 160 'pi200m.ascii.13of20',
161 161 'pi200m.ascii.14of20',
162 162 'pi200m.ascii.15of20']
163 163
164 164 # download the data files if they don't already exist:
165 165 In [8]: v.map(fetch_pi_file, files)
166 166
167 167 # This is the parallel calculation using the Client.map method
168 168 # which applies compute_two_digit_freqs to each file in files in parallel.
169 169 In [9]: freqs_all = v.map(compute_two_digit_freqs, files)
170 170
171 171 # Add up the frequencies from each engine.
172 172 In [10]: freqs = reduce_freqs(freqs_all)
173 173
174 174 In [11]: plot_two_digit_freqs(freqs)
175 175 Out[11]: <matplotlib.image.AxesImage object at 0x18beb110>
176 176
177 177 In [12]: plt.title('2 digit counts of 150m digits of pi')
178 178 Out[12]: <matplotlib.text.Text object at 0x18d1f9b0>
179 179
180 180 The resulting plot generated by Matplotlib is shown below. The colors indicate
181 181 which two digit sequences are more (red) or less (blue) likely to occur in the
182 182 first 150 million digits of pi. We clearly see that the sequence "41" is
183 183 most likely and that "06" and "07" are least likely. Further analysis would
184 184 show that the relative size of the statistical fluctuations have decreased
185 185 compared to the 10,000 digit calculation.
186 186
187 187 .. image:: figs/two_digit_counts.*
188 188
189
190 Parallel options pricing
191 ========================
192
193 An option is a financial contract that gives the buyer of the contract the
194 right to buy (a "call") or sell (a "put") a secondary asset (a stock for
195 example) at a particular date in the future (the expiration date) for a
196 pre-agreed upon price (the strike price). For this right, the buyer pays the
197 seller a premium (the option price). There are a wide variety of flavors of
198 options (American, European, Asian, etc.) that are useful for different
199 purposes: hedging against risk, speculation, etc.
200
201 Much of modern finance is driven by the need to price these contracts
202 accurately based on what is known about the properties (such as volatility) of
203 the underlying asset. One method of pricing options is to use a Monte Carlo
204 simulation of the underlying asset price. In this example we use this approach
205 to price both European and Asian (path dependent) options for various strike
206 prices and volatilities.
207
208 The code for this example can be found in the :file:`docs/examples/parallel/options`
209 directory of the IPython source. The function :func:`price_options` in
210 :file:`mckernel.py` implements the basic Monte Carlo pricing algorithm using
211 the NumPy package and is shown here:
212
213 .. literalinclude:: ../../examples/parallel/options/mckernel.py
214 :language: python
215
216 To run this code in parallel, we will use IPython's :class:`LoadBalancedView` class,
217 which distributes work to the engines using dynamic load balancing. This
218 view is a wrapper of the :class:`Client` class shown in
219 the previous example. The parallel calculation using :class:`LoadBalancedView` can
220 be found in the file :file:`mcpricer.py`. The code in this file creates a
221 :class:`LoadBalancedView` instance and then submits a set of tasks using
222 :meth:`LoadBalancedView.apply` that calculate the option prices for different
223 volatilities and strike prices. The results are then plotted as a 2D contour
224 plot using Matplotlib.
225
226 .. literalinclude:: ../../examples/parallel/options/mcpricer.py
227 :language: python
228
229 To use this code, start an IPython cluster using :command:`ipcluster`, open
230 IPython in the pylab mode with the file :file:`mckernel.py` in your current
231 working directory and then type:
232
233 .. sourcecode:: ipython
234
235 In [7]: run mcpricer.py
236
237 Submitted tasks: 30
238
239 Once all the tasks have finished, the results can be plotted using the
240 :func:`plot_options` function. Here we make contour plots of the Asian
241 call and Asian put options as function of the volatility and strike price:
242
243 .. sourcecode:: ipython
244
245 In [8]: plot_options(sigma_vals, strike_vals, prices['acall'])
246
247 In [9]: plt.figure()
248 Out[9]: <matplotlib.figure.Figure object at 0x18c178d0>
249
250 In [10]: plot_options(sigma_vals, strike_vals, prices['aput'])
251
252 These results are shown in the two figures below. On our 15 engines, the
253 entire calculation (15 strike prices, 15 volatilities, 100,000 paths for each)
254 took 37 seconds in parallel, giving a speedup of 14.1x, which is comparable
255 to the speedup observed in our previous example.
256
257 .. image:: figs/asian_call.*
258
259 .. image:: figs/asian_put.*
260
261 189 Conclusion
262 190 ==========
263 191
264 192 To conclude these examples, we summarize the key features of IPython's
265 193 parallel architecture that have been demonstrated:
266 194
267 195 * Serial code can be parallelized often with only a few extra lines of code.
268 196 We have used the :class:`DirectView` and :class:`LoadBalancedView` classes
269 197 for this purpose.
270 198 * The resulting parallel code can be run without ever leaving the IPython's
271 199 interactive shell.
272 200 * Any data computed in parallel can be explored interactively through
273 201 visualization or further numerical calculations.
274 202 * We have run these examples on a cluster running RHEL 5 and Sun GridEngine.
275 203 IPython's built in support for SGE (and other batch systems) makes it easy
276 204 to get started with IPython's parallel capabilities.
277 205
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