5.x Series¶
IPython 5.1¶
- Broken
%timeit
on Python2 due to the use of__qualname__
. PR #9804 - Restore
%gui qt
to create and return aQApplication
if necessary. PR #9789 - Don’t set terminal title by default. PR #9801
- Preserve indentation when inserting newlines with
Ctrl-O
. PR #9770 - Restore completion in debugger. PR #9785
- Deprecate
IPython.core.debugger.Tracer()
in favor of simpler, newer, APIs. PR #9731 - Restore
NoOpContext
context manager removed by mistake, and addDeprecationWarning
. PR #9765 - Add option allowing
Prompt_toolkit
to use 24bits colors. PR #9736 - Fix for closing interactive matplotlib windows on OS X. PR #9854
- An embedded interactive shell instance can be used more than once. PR #9843
- More robust check for whether IPython is in a terminal. PR #9833
- Better pretty-printing of dicts on PyPy. PR #9827
- Some coloured output now looks better on dark background command prompts in Windows. PR #9838
- Improved tab completion of paths on Windows . PR #9826
- Fix tkinter event loop integration on Python 2 with
future
installed. PR #9824 - Restore
Ctrl-\
as a shortcut to quit IPython. - Make
get_ipython()
accessible when modules are imported by startup files. PR #9818 - Add support for running directories containing a
__main__.py
file with theipython
command. PR #9813
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
IPython 5.0¶
Released July 7, 2016
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 #9447 and PR #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.
New terminal interface¶
The overhaul of the terminal interface will probably cause a range of minor issues for existing users. This is inevitable for such a significant change, and we’ve done our best to minimise these issues. Some changes that we’re aware of, with suggestions on how to handle them:
IPython no longer uses readline configuration (~/.inputrc
). We hope that
the functionality you want (e.g. vi input mode) will be available by configuring
IPython directly (see /config/options/terminal).
If something’s missing, please file an issue.
The PromptManager
class has been removed, and the prompt machinery simplified.
See Custom Prompts to customise prompts with the new machinery.
IPython.core.debugger
now provides a plainer interface.
IPython.terminal.debugger
contains the terminal debugger using
prompt_toolkit.
There are new options to configure the colours used in syntax highlighting.
We have tried to integrate them with our classic --colors
option and
%colors
magic, but there’s a mismatch in possibilities, so some configurations
may produce unexpected results. See Terminal Colors for more information.
The new interface is not compatible with Emacs ‘inferior-shell’ feature. To
continue using this, add the --simple-prompt
flag to the command Emacs
runs. This flag disables most IPython features, relying on Emacs to provide
things like tab completion.
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; usesys.stdout
instead.IPython.core.InteractiveShell:write_err()
is deprecated; usesys.stderr
instead.- The
formatter
keyword argument toInspector.info
inIPython.core.oinspec
has no effect. - The
global_ns
keyword argument of IPython Embed was deprecated, and has no effect. Usemodule
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 PR #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
andCtrl-Enter
to submit code in terminal. cf #9587 and #9401. In terminal there is no practical way to distinguish these key sequences from a normal new line return. PageUp
andpageDown
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.