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Cookbook: Dynamic prompt

ellisonbg edited this page Feb 13, 2013 · 1 revision

This assumes IPython 0.12

I used IPython to create a custom shell for a project at work. I wanted the prompt to show some status information about the state of the system it was controlling.

ED: I've changed these examples to use the config system. You can do the same things with an embedded instance of IPython .

First, we change the default ipython_config.py file, adding these lines:

 # _foobar will be the part of the prompt we control
 c.PromptManager.in_template = "[{_foobar}]\n[\#]>>> "
 c.PromptManager.in2_template = ".\D.>>> "
 c.PromptManager.out_template = "[\#]<<< "

Next, we prepare our variable, ensuring it has a __str__() method for the prompt formatter to call:

This code goes in a startup file - create a file such as foobar_prompt.py in profile_default/startup/

 del FoobarPrompt

Expected output:

$ ipython 

[foo]
[1]>>> _foobar.var = "blah"

[UNKNOWN]
[2]>>> _foobar.var = "BAR"

[BAR]
[3]>>> _foobar
[3]<<< <__main__.FoobarPrompt at 0x25c2f90>

[BAR]
[4]>>> 

You can also automatically set the state from the pre_run_code_hook (gets run every time code is executed) or the pre_prompt_hook (gets run just before the prompt is printed).

 get_ipython().set_hook("pre_prompt_hook", update_prompt)

Finally, there are a number of built in prompt variables:

Built in prompt templates
Short Long Notes
%n, \# {color.number}{count}{color.prompt} history counter with bolding
\N {count} history counter without bolding
\D {dots} series of dots the same width as the history counter
\T {time} current time
\w {cwd} current working directory
\W {cwd_last} basename of CWD
\Xn {cwd_x[n]} Show the last n terms of the CWD. n=0 means show all.
\Yn {cwd_y[n]} Like \Xn, but show '~' for $HOME
\h N/A hostname, up to the first '.'
\H N/A full hostname
\u N/A username (from the $USER environment variable)
\v N/A IPython version
\$ N/A root symbol ("$" for normal user or "#" for root)
\\ N/A escaped '\'
\n N/A newline
\r N/A carriage return

On terminals supporting ANSI color switching, you can also use the following color variables:

# attributes of IPython.utils.coloransi.InputTermColors
{color.Black}           {color.Green}
{color.BlinkBlack}      {color.LightBlue}
{color.BlinkBlue}       {color.LightCyan}
{color.BlinkCyan}       {color.LightGray}
{color.BlinkGreen}      {color.LightGreen}
{color.BlinkLightGray}  {color.LightPurple}
{color.BlinkPurple}     {color.LightRed}
{color.BlinkRed}        {color.Purple}
{color.BlinkYellow}     {color.Red}
{color.Blue}            {color.White}
{color.Brown}           {color.Yellow}
{color.Cyan}            {color.Normal} (resets to terminal default)
{color.DarkGray}                       (try {color.normal} if above doesn't work)
so
 c.PromptManager.in_template = "{color.LightGreen} \T {color.Yellow} \Y2 "

will produce a prompt with green time and yellow CWD.

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