Note

This documentation is for a development version of IPython. There may be significant differences from the latest stable release (1.2.1).

IPython

IPython: tools for interactive and parallel computing in Python.

http://ipython.org

3 Functions

IPython.embed_kernel(module=None, local_ns=None, **kwargs)

Embed and start an IPython kernel in a given scope.

If you don’t want the kernel to initialize the namespace from the scope of the surrounding function, and/or you want to load full IPython configuration, you probably want IPython.start_kernel() instead.

Parameters:

module : ModuleType, optional

The module to load into IPython globals (default: caller)

local_ns : dict, optional

The namespace to load into IPython user namespace (default: caller)

kwargs : various, optional

Further keyword args are relayed to the IPKernelApp constructor, allowing configuration of the Kernel. Will only have an effect on the first embed_kernel call for a given process.

IPython.start_ipython(argv=None, **kwargs)

Launch a normal IPython instance (as opposed to embedded)

IPython.embed() puts a shell in a particular calling scope, such as a function or method for debugging purposes, which is often not desirable.

start_ipython() does full, regular IPython initialization, including loading startup files, configuration, etc. much of which is skipped by embed().

This is a public API method, and will survive implementation changes.

Parameters:

argv : list or None, optional

If unspecified or None, IPython will parse command-line options from sys.argv. To prevent any command-line parsing, pass an empty list: argv=[].

user_ns : dict, optional

specify this dictionary to initialize the IPython user namespace with particular values.

kwargs : various, optional

Any other kwargs will be passed to the Application constructor, such as config.

IPython.start_kernel(argv=None, **kwargs)

Launch a normal IPython kernel instance (as opposed to embedded)

IPython.embed_kernel() puts a shell in a particular calling scope, such as a function or method for debugging purposes, which is often not desirable.

start_kernel() does full, regular IPython initialization, including loading startup files, configuration, etc. much of which is skipped by embed().

Parameters:

argv : list or None, optional

If unspecified or None, IPython will parse command-line options from sys.argv. To prevent any command-line parsing, pass an empty list: argv=[].

user_ns : dict, optional

specify this dictionary to initialize the IPython user namespace with particular values.

kwargs : various, optional

Any other kwargs will be passed to the Application constructor, such as config.