Installing IPython — IPython 5.1.0 documentation

# Installing IPython

IPython requires Python 2.7 or ≥ 3.3.

## Quick Install

With `pip` already installed :

    $ pip install ipython

This installs IPython as well as its dependencies.

If you want to use IPython with notebooks or the Qt console, you should also install Jupyter `pip install jupyter`.

## Overview

This document describes in detail the steps required to install IPython. For a few quick ways to get started with package managers or full Python distributions, see the install page of the IPython website.

Please let us know if you have problems installing IPython or any of its dependencies.

IPython and most dependencies should be installed via pip. In many scenarios, this is the simplest method of installing Python packages. More information about `pip` can be found on its PyPI page.

More general information about installing Python packages can be found in Python’s documentation.

### Dependencies

IPython relies on a number of other Python packages. Installing using a package manager like pip or conda will ensure the necessary packages are installed. Manual installation without dependencies is possible, but not recommended. The dependencies can be viewed with package manager commands, such as pip show ipython or conda info ipython.

### Installing IPython itself

IPython requires several dependencies to work correctly, it is not recommended to install IPython and all its dependencies manually as this can be quite long and troublesome. You should use the python package manager `pip`.

### Installation using pip

Make sure you have the latest version of `pip` (the Python package manager) installed. If you do not, head to Pip documentation and install `pip` first.

The quickest way to get up and running with IPython is to install it with pip:

    $ pip install ipython

That’s it.

### Installation from source

If you don’t want to use pip, or don’t have it installed, grab the latest stable tarball of IPython from PyPI. Then do the following:

    $ tar -xzf ipython.tar.gz
    $ cd ipython
    $ pip install .

Do not invoke `setup.py` directly as this can have undesirable consequences for further upgrades. Try to also avoid any usage of `easy_install` that can have similar undesirable consequences.

If you are installing to a location (like `/usr/local`) that requires higher permissions, you may need to run the last command with sudo. You can also install in user specific location by using the `--user` flag in conjunction with pip.

To run IPython’s test suite, use the iptest command from outside of the IPython source tree:

    $ iptest

### Installing the development version

It is also possible to install the development version of IPython from our Git source code repository. To do this you will need to have Git installed on your system.

Then do:

    $ git clone https://github.com/ipython/ipython.git
    $ cd ipython
    $ pip install -e .

The pip install -e . command allows users and developers to follow the development branch as it changes by creating links in the right places and installing the command line scripts to the appropriate locations.

Then, if you want to update your IPython at any time, do:

    $ git pull

If the dependencies or entrypoints have changed, you may have to run

    $ pip install -e .

again, but this is infrequent.