Question

I used to be able to start ipython from the command line like so:

ipython -c 'print "Hi"'

or more usefully

ipython -i -pdb -c "%run my_program.py"

Now I get the error: [TerminalIPythonApp] Unrecognized flag: '-c'.

Is this an ipython-0.11 bug or is the capability being ‘phased out’? Or, better yet, am I just doing something wrong?

Answer 1

Yes, this an issue in the argument parsing in 0.11. It requires that you specify anything that takes a value with ‘=’, so it must be:

ipython --c='print "Hi"'

This requirement has been relaxed in git master, and your command as-written* will work in 0.12, out later this month.

* only one-character flags allow a single -, longer ones require leading --, so it would have to be:

ipython -i --pdb -c "%run my_program.py"