.. _kernel_install:
Installing the IPython kernel
=============================
IPython can be installed (different python versions, virtualenv or conda
environments) as a kernel for Jupyter by following these steps:
* make sure that the desired python installation is active
(e.g. activate the environment, or use absolute paths)
and ipykernel is installed
* run once ``ipython kernel install --user``,
or ``python -m ipykernel install --user`` to ensure a specific Python installation is used.
* See `ipython kernel install --help` for the list of installation options like
naming the kernel, or non default install location.
* The IPython kernel for Jupyter is provided by the `ipykernel` python package,
see `ipykernel documentation `_ if you
need more flexibility for installation.
For example:
.. sourcecode:: bash
source activate kernel-environment
ipython kernel install --user
source deactivate kernel-environment
or
.. sourcecode:: bash
~/envs/kernel-environment/python -m ipykernel install --user
The last command installs a :ref:`kernel spec ` file
for the current python installation. Kernel spec files are JSON files, which
can be viewed and changed with a normal text editor.
.. note ::
The command `ipython kernelspec` is deprecated and will be removed in future versions.
.. _multiple_kernel_install:
Multiple IPython installs
=========================
If you want to have multiple IPython kernels for different environments,
you will need to specify unique names for the kernelspecs,
and you may also want to specify the display name of those kernels,
so that you can clearly see which is which in the notebook menus:
.. sourcecode:: bash
source activate myenv
ipython kernel install --user --name myenv --display-name "Python (myenv)"
source activate other-env
ipython kernel install --user --name other-env --display-name "Python (other-env)"
source deactivate