Python config files

To create the blank config files, run:

ipython profile create [profilename]

If you leave out the profile name, the files will be created for the default profile (see :ref:`profiles`). These will typically be located in :file:`~/.ipython/profile_default/`, and will be named :file:`ipython_config.py`, :file:`ipython_notebook_config.py`, etc. The settings in :file:`ipython_config.py` apply to all IPython commands.

The files typically start by getting the root config object:

c = get_config()

You can then configure class attributes like this:

c.InteractiveShell.automagic = False

Be careful with spelling--incorrect names will simply be ignored, with no error.

To add to a collection which may have already been defined elsewhere, you can use methods like those found on lists, dicts and sets: append, extend, :meth:`~traitlets.config.LazyConfigValue.prepend` (like extend, but at the front), add and update (which works both for dicts and sets):

c.InteractiveShellApp.extensions.append('Cython')

# sample ipython_config.py
c = get_config()

c.TerminalIPythonApp.display_banner = True
c.InteractiveShellApp.log_level = 20
c.InteractiveShellApp.extensions = [
    'myextension'
]
c.InteractiveShellApp.exec_lines = [
    'import numpy',
    'import scipy'
]
c.InteractiveShellApp.exec_files = [
    'mycode.py',
    'fancy.ipy'
]
c.InteractiveShell.autoindent = True
c.InteractiveShell.colors = 'LightBG'
c.InteractiveShell.confirm_exit = False
c.InteractiveShell.editor = 'nano'
c.InteractiveShell.xmode = 'Context'

c.PrefilterManager.multi_line_specials = True

c.AliasManager.user_aliases = [
 ('la', 'ls -al')
]

Command line arguments

Every configurable value can be set from the command line, using this syntax:

ipython --ClassName.attribute=value

Many frequently used options have short aliases and flags, such as --matplotlib (to integrate with a matplotlib GUI event loop) or --pdb (automatic post-mortem debugging of exceptions).

To see all of these abbreviated options, run:

ipython --help
ipython notebook --help
# etc.

Options specified at the command line, in either format, override options set in a configuration file.

The config magic

You can also modify config from inside IPython, using a magic command:

%config IPCompleter.greedy = True

At present, this only affects the current session - changes you make to config are not saved anywhere. Also, some options are only read when IPython starts, so they can't be changed like this.