How to run IPython script from the command line - syntax error with magic functions, %

Question

I want to run IPython from the command line. However, I get a syntax error on the first line, importing pylab with the magic function %pylab is giving a syntax error on the %. The command I am using is simply ipython -i script.py.

Any ideas how to solve this?

Answer 1

You need to name your file script.ipy. When it ends in .ipy it can contain ipython syntax.

From ipython --help:

Usage

    ipython [subcommand] [options] [files]

    If invoked with no options, it executes all the files listed in sequence
    and exits, use -i to enter interactive mode after running the files.  Files
    ending in .py will be treated as normal Python, but files ending in .ipy
    can contain special IPython syntax (magic commands, shell expansions, etc.)