The Python Interactive Shell is an interactive interpreter that can execute Python commands.
You can invoke it from your default shell — zsh
, bash
, fish
etc.:
$ python
# or for a specific python version
$ python3.9
Also you can run interactive shell with a module/file like below:
$ python -i somefile.py
Use Case
Thanks python, however I can't say I enjoy your default shell. I need more capable, colorful interactive shell like IPython, bpython.
It's easy to achieve this in Django. It's well documented in django-shell:
# IPython
$ django-admin -i ipython
# bpython
$ django-admin -i bpython
Well, how can we achieve it in Python
?
Solution
Python's way is kind of similar; you invoke it with some module
using -m
flag:
For IPython
run:
$ python -m IPython -i
# with module/file
$ python -m IPython -i somefile.py
For bpython
run:
$ python -m bpython -i
# with module/file
$ python -m bpython -i somefile.py
NOTE
In order to be able to use IPython and/or bpython first you have to install them:$ python -m pip install ipython $ python -m pip install bpython
Yes, it's that easy and now we can take advantage of amazing features like below:
- In-line syntax highlighting
- Readline-like auto-complete with suggestions displayed as you type
- Expected parameter list for any Python function, etc.
Probably it would be better to have them as aliases:
# .aliases
alias pi='python -m IPython -i'
alias pib='python -m bpython -i'
All done!
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