System Wide config

• IPython now looks for config files in {sys.prefix}/etc/ipython for environment-specific configuration.
• Startup files can be found in /etc/ipython/startup or {sys.prefix}/etc/ipython/startup in addition to the profile directory, for system-wide or env-specific startup files.

See :ghpull:`10644`

ProgressBar

IPython now has built-in support for progressbars:

In[1]: from IPython.display import ProgressBar
...  : pb = ProgressBar(100)
...  : pb

In[2]: pb.progress = 50

# progress bar in cell 1 updates.

See :ghpull:`10755`

Misc

• Fix IPython.core.display:Pretty._repr_pretty_ had the wrong signature. (:ghpull:`10625`)
• :magic:`timeit` now give a correct SyntaxError if naked return used. (:ghpull:`10637`)
• Prepare the :ipython: directive to be compatible with Sphinx 1.7. (:ghpull:`10668`)
• Make IPython work with OpenSSL in FIPS mode; change hash algorithm of input from md5 to sha1. (:ghpull:`10696`)
• Clear breakpoints before running any script with debugger. (:ghpull:`10699`)
• Document that :magic:`profile` is deprecated, not to be confused with :magic:`prun`. (:ghpull:`10707`)
• Limit default number of returned completions to 500. (:ghpull:`10743`)

You can see all the PR marked for the 5.5. milestone, and all the backport versions.

Configurable TerminalInteractiveShell

Backported from the 6.x branch as an exceptional new feature. See :ghpull:`10373` and :ghissue:`10364`

IPython gained a new c.TerminalIPythonApp.interactive_shell_class option that allow to customize the class used to start the terminal frontend. This should allow user to use custom interfaces, like reviving the former readline interface which is now a separate package not maintained by the core team.

Define _repr_mimebundle_

Object can now define _repr_mimebundle_ in place of multiple _repr_*_ methods and return a full mimebundle. This greatly simplify many implementation and allow to publish custom mimetypes (like geojson, plotly, dataframes....). See the Custom Display Logic example notebook for more informations.

Execution Heuristics

The heuristic for execution in the command line interface is now more biased toward executing for single statement. While in IPython 4.x and before a single line would be executed when enter is pressed, IPython 5.x would insert a new line. For single line statement this is not true anymore and if a single line is valid Python, IPython will execute it regardless of the cursor position. Use :kbd:`Ctrl-O` to insert a new line. :ghpull:`10489`

Implement Display IDs

Implement display id and ability to update a given display. This should greatly simplify a lot of code by removing the need for widgets and allow other frontend to implement things like progress-bars. See :ghpull:`10048`

Display function

The :func:`display() <IPython.display.display>` function is now available by default in an IPython session, meaning users can call it on any object to see their rich representation. This should allow for better interactivity both at the REPL and in notebook environment.

Scripts and library that rely on display and may be run outside of IPython still need to import the display function using from IPython.display import display. See :ghpull:`10596`

Miscs

• _mp_main_ is not reloaded which fixes issues with multiprocessing. :ghpull:`10523`
• Use user colorscheme in Pdb as well :ghpull:`10479`
• Faster shutdown. :ghpull:`10408`
• Fix a crash in reverse search. :ghpull:`10371`
• added Completer.backslash_combining_completions boolean option to deactivate backslash-tab completion that may conflict with windows path.

True Color feature

prompt_toolkit uses pygments styles for syntax highlighting. By default, the colors specified in the style are approximated using a standard 256-color palette. prompt_toolkit also supports 24bit, a.k.a. "true", a.k.a. 16-million color escape sequences which enable compatible terminals to display the exact colors specified instead of an approximation. This true_color option exposes that capability in prompt_toolkit to the IPython shell.

Here is a good source for the current state of true color support in various terminal emulators and software projects: https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728

New terminal interface

IPython 5 features a major upgrade to the terminal interface, bringing live syntax highlighting as you type, proper multiline editing and multiline paste, and tab completions that don't clutter up your history.

These features are provided by the Python library prompt_toolkit, which replaces readline throughout our terminal interface.

Relying on this pure-Python, cross platform module also makes it simpler to install IPython. We have removed dependencies on pyreadline for Windows and gnureadline for Mac.

Backwards incompatible changes

• The %install_ext magic function, deprecated since 4.0, has now been deleted. You can distribute and install extensions as packages on PyPI.
• Callbacks registered while an event is being handled will now only be called for subsequent events; previously they could be called for the current event. Similarly, callbacks removed while handling an event will always get that event. See :ghissue:`9447` and :ghpull:`9453`.
• Integration with pydb has been removed since pydb development has been stopped since 2012, and pydb is not installable from PyPI.
• The autoedit_syntax option has apparently been broken for many years. It has been removed.

Provisional Changes

Provisional changes are experimental functionality that may, or may not, make it into a future version of IPython, and which API may change without warnings. Activating these features and using these API are at your own risk, and may have security implication for your system, especially if used with the Jupyter notebook,

When running via the Jupyter notebook interfaces, or other compatible client, you can enable rich documentation experimental functionality:

When the docrepr package is installed setting the boolean flag InteractiveShell.sphinxify_docstring to True, will process the various object through sphinx before displaying them (see the docrepr package documentation for more information.

You need to also enable the IPython pager display rich HTML representation using the InteractiveShell.enable_html_pager boolean configuration option. As usual you can set these configuration options globally in your configuration files, alternatively you can turn them on dynamically using the following snippet:

ip = get_ipython()
ip.sphinxify_docstring = True
ip.enable_html_pager = True

You can test the effect of various combinations of the above configuration in the Jupyter notebook, with things example like :

import numpy as np
np.histogram?

This is part of an effort to make Documentation in Python richer and provide in the long term if possible dynamic examples that can contain math, images, widgets... As stated above this is nightly experimental feature with a lot of (fun) problem to solve. We would be happy to get your feedback and expertise on it.

Deprecated Features

Some deprecated features are listed in this section. Don't forget to enable DeprecationWarning as an error if you are using IPython in a Continuous Integration setup or in your testing in general:

import warnings
warnings.filterwarnings('error', '.*', DeprecationWarning, module='yourmodule.*')

• hooks.fix_error_editor seems unused and is pending deprecation.
• IPython/core/excolors.py:ExceptionColors is deprecated.
• IPython.core.InteractiveShell:write() is deprecated; use sys.stdout instead.
• IPython.core.InteractiveShell:write_err() is deprecated; use sys.stderr instead.
• The formatter keyword argument to Inspector.info in IPython.core.oinspec has no effect.
• The global_ns keyword argument of IPython Embed was deprecated, and has no effect. Use module keyword argument instead.

Known Issues:

• <Esc> Key does not dismiss the completer and does not clear the current buffer. This is an on purpose modification due to current technical limitation. Cf :ghpull:`9572`. Escape the control character which is used for other shortcut, and there is no practical way to distinguish. Use Ctr-G or Ctrl-C as an alternative.
• Cannot use Shift-Enter and Ctrl-Enter to submit code in terminal. cf :ghissue:`9587` and :ghissue:`9401`. In terminal there is no practical way to distinguish these key sequences from a normal new line return.
• PageUp and pageDown do not move through completion menu.
• Color styles might not adapt to terminal emulator themes. This will need new version of Pygments to be released, and can be mitigated with custom themes.