|
|
.. _initial config:
|
|
|
|
|
|
=============================================================
|
|
|
Outdated configuration information that might still be useful
|
|
|
=============================================================
|
|
|
|
|
|
.. warning::
|
|
|
|
|
|
All of the information in this file is outdated. Until the new
|
|
|
configuration system is better documented, this material is being kept.
|
|
|
|
|
|
This section will help you set various things in your environment for
|
|
|
your IPython sessions to be as efficient as possible. All of IPython's
|
|
|
configuration information, along with several example files, is stored
|
|
|
in a directory named by default $HOME/.config/ipython if $HOME/.config
|
|
|
exists (Linux), or $HOME/.ipython as a secondary default. You can change this by
|
|
|
defining the environment variable IPYTHONDIR, or at runtime with the
|
|
|
command line option -ipythondir.
|
|
|
|
|
|
If all goes well, the first time you run IPython it should automatically create
|
|
|
a user copy of the config directory for you, based on its builtin defaults. You
|
|
|
can look at the files it creates to learn more about configuring the
|
|
|
system. The main file you will modify to configure IPython's behavior is called
|
|
|
ipythonrc (with a .ini extension under Windows), included for reference
|
|
|
:ref:`here <ipythonrc>`. This file is very commented and has many variables you
|
|
|
can change to suit your taste, you can find more details :ref:`here
|
|
|
<customization>`. Here we discuss the basic things you will want to make sure
|
|
|
things are working properly from the beginning.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Color
|
|
|
=====
|
|
|
|
|
|
The default IPython configuration has most bells and whistles turned on
|
|
|
(they're pretty safe). But there's one that may cause problems on some
|
|
|
systems: the use of color on screen for displaying information. This is
|
|
|
very useful, since IPython can show prompts and exception tracebacks
|
|
|
with various colors, display syntax-highlighted source code, and in
|
|
|
general make it easier to visually parse information.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The following terminals seem to handle the color sequences fine:
|
|
|
|
|
|
* Linux main text console, KDE Konsole, Gnome Terminal, E-term,
|
|
|
rxvt, xterm.
|
|
|
* CDE terminal (tested under Solaris). This one boldfaces light colors.
|
|
|
* (X)Emacs buffers. See the emacs_ section for more details on
|
|
|
using IPython with (X)Emacs.
|
|
|
* A Windows (XP/2k) command prompt with pyreadline_.
|
|
|
* A Windows (XP/2k) CygWin shell. Although some users have reported
|
|
|
problems; it is not clear whether there is an issue for everyone
|
|
|
or only under specific configurations. If you have full color
|
|
|
support under cygwin, please post to the IPython mailing list so
|
|
|
this issue can be resolved for all users.
|
|
|
|
|
|
.. _pyreadline: https://code.launchpad.net/pyreadline
|
|
|
|
|
|
These have shown problems:
|
|
|
|
|
|
* Windows command prompt in WinXP/2k logged into a Linux machine via
|
|
|
telnet or ssh.
|
|
|
* Windows native command prompt in WinXP/2k, without Gary Bishop's
|
|
|
extensions. Once Gary's readline library is installed, the normal
|
|
|
WinXP/2k command prompt works perfectly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Currently the following color schemes are available:
|
|
|
|
|
|
* NoColor: uses no color escapes at all (all escapes are empty '' ''
|
|
|
strings). This 'scheme' is thus fully safe to use in any terminal.
|
|
|
* Linux: works well in Linux console type environments: dark
|
|
|
background with light fonts. It uses bright colors for
|
|
|
information, so it is difficult to read if you have a light
|
|
|
colored background.
|
|
|
* LightBG: the basic colors are similar to those in the Linux scheme
|
|
|
but darker. It is easy to read in terminals with light backgrounds.
|
|
|
|
|
|
IPython uses colors for two main groups of things: prompts and
|
|
|
tracebacks which are directly printed to the terminal, and the object
|
|
|
introspection system which passes large sets of data through a pager.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Input/Output prompts and exception tracebacks
|
|
|
=============================================
|
|
|
|
|
|
You can test whether the colored prompts and tracebacks work on your
|
|
|
system interactively by typing '%colors Linux' at the prompt (use
|
|
|
'%colors LightBG' if your terminal has a light background). If the input
|
|
|
prompt shows garbage like::
|
|
|
|
|
|
[0;32mIn [[1;32m1[0;32m]: [0;00m
|
|
|
|
|
|
instead of (in color) something like::
|
|
|
|
|
|
In [1]:
|
|
|
|
|
|
this means that your terminal doesn't properly handle color escape
|
|
|
sequences. You can go to a 'no color' mode by typing '%colors NoColor'.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You can try using a different terminal emulator program (Emacs users,
|
|
|
see below). To permanently set your color preferences, edit the file
|
|
|
$IPYTHON_DIR/ipythonrc and set the colors option to the desired value.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Object details (types, docstrings, source code, etc.)
|
|
|
=====================================================
|
|
|
|
|
|
IPython has a set of special functions for studying the objects you are working
|
|
|
with, discussed in detail :ref:`here <dynamic_object_info>`. But this system
|
|
|
relies on passing information which is longer than your screen through a data
|
|
|
pager, such as the common Unix less and more programs. In order to be able to
|
|
|
see this information in color, your pager needs to be properly configured. I
|
|
|
strongly recommend using less instead of more, as it seems that more simply can
|
|
|
not understand colored text correctly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
In order to configure less as your default pager, do the following:
|
|
|
|
|
|
1. Set the environment PAGER variable to less.
|
|
|
2. Set the environment LESS variable to -r (plus any other options
|
|
|
you always want to pass to less by default). This tells less to
|
|
|
properly interpret control sequences, which is how color
|
|
|
information is given to your terminal.
|
|
|
|
|
|
For the bash shell, add to your ~/.bashrc file the lines::
|
|
|
|
|
|
export PAGER=less
|
|
|
export LESS=-r
|
|
|
|
|
|
For the csh or tcsh shells, add to your ~/.cshrc file the lines::
|
|
|
|
|
|
setenv PAGER less
|
|
|
setenv LESS -r
|
|
|
|
|
|
There is similar syntax for other Unix shells, look at your system
|
|
|
documentation for details.
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you are on a system which lacks proper data pagers (such as Windows),
|
|
|
IPython will use a very limited builtin pager.
|
|
|
|
|
|
.. _Prompts:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fine-tuning your prompt
|
|
|
=======================
|
|
|
|
|
|
IPython's prompts can be customized using a syntax similar to that of
|
|
|
the bash shell. Many of bash's escapes are supported, as well as a few
|
|
|
additional ones. We list them below::
|
|
|
|
|
|
\#
|
|
|
the prompt/history count number. This escape is automatically
|
|
|
wrapped in the coloring codes for the currently active color scheme.
|
|
|
\N
|
|
|
the 'naked' prompt/history count number: this is just the number
|
|
|
itself, without any coloring applied to it. This lets you produce
|
|
|
numbered prompts with your own colors.
|
|
|
\D
|
|
|
the prompt/history count, with the actual digits replaced by dots.
|
|
|
Used mainly in continuation prompts (prompt_in2)
|
|
|
\w
|
|
|
the current working directory
|
|
|
\W
|
|
|
the basename of current working directory
|
|
|
\Xn
|
|
|
where $n=0\ldots5.$ The current working directory, with $HOME
|
|
|
replaced by ~, and filtered out to contain only $n$ path elements
|
|
|
\Yn
|
|
|
Similar to \Xn, but with the $n+1$ element included if it is ~ (this
|
|
|
is similar to the behavior of the %cn escapes in tcsh)
|
|
|
\u
|
|
|
the username of the current user
|
|
|
\$
|
|
|
if the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $
|
|
|
\h
|
|
|
the hostname up to the first '.'
|
|
|
\H
|
|
|
the hostname
|
|
|
\n
|
|
|
a newline
|
|
|
\r
|
|
|
a carriage return
|
|
|
\v
|
|
|
IPython version string
|
|
|
|
|
|
In addition to these, ANSI color escapes can be insterted into the
|
|
|
prompts, as \C_ColorName. The list of valid color names is: Black, Blue,
|
|
|
Brown, Cyan, DarkGray, Green, LightBlue, LightCyan, LightGray,
|
|
|
LightGreen, LightPurple, LightRed, NoColor, Normal, Purple, Red, White,
|
|
|
Yellow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Finally, IPython supports the evaluation of arbitrary expressions in
|
|
|
your prompt string. The prompt strings are evaluated through the syntax
|
|
|
of PEP 215, but basically you can use $x.y to expand the value of x.y,
|
|
|
and for more complicated expressions you can use braces: ${foo()+x} will
|
|
|
call function foo and add to it the value of x, before putting the
|
|
|
result into your prompt. For example, using
|
|
|
prompt_in1 '${commands.getoutput("uptime")}\nIn [\#]: '
|
|
|
will print the result of the uptime command on each prompt (assuming the
|
|
|
commands module has been imported in your ipythonrc file).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Prompt examples
|
|
|
|
|
|
The following options in an ipythonrc file will give you IPython's
|
|
|
default prompts::
|
|
|
|
|
|
prompt_in1 'In [\#]:'
|
|
|
prompt_in2 ' .\D.:'
|
|
|
prompt_out 'Out[\#]:'
|
|
|
|
|
|
which look like this::
|
|
|
|
|
|
In [1]: 1+2
|
|
|
Out[1]: 3
|
|
|
|
|
|
In [2]: for i in (1,2,3):
|
|
|
...: print i,
|
|
|
...:
|
|
|
1 2 3
|
|
|
|
|
|
These will give you a very colorful prompt with path information::
|
|
|
|
|
|
#prompt_in1 '\C_Red\u\C_Blue[\C_Cyan\Y1\C_Blue]\C_LightGreen\#>'
|
|
|
prompt_in2 ' ..\D>'
|
|
|
prompt_out '<\#>'
|
|
|
|
|
|
which look like this::
|
|
|
|
|
|
fperez[~/ipython]1> 1+2
|
|
|
<1> 3
|
|
|
fperez[~/ipython]2> for i in (1,2,3):
|
|
|
...> print i,
|
|
|
...>
|
|
|
1 2 3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
