ipython won't start

Now I’m facing that ipython won’t start without any error messages. I tried to run it with DEBUG, then the command will be “uninterruptible sleep” after the logs.

$ pyenv global system
$ python --version
Python 2.7.5
$ ipython --version
6.2.1
$ ipython --log-level=DEBUG
[TerminalIPythonApp] IPYTHONDIR set to: /users/yanagisawa/.ipython
[TerminalIPythonApp] Using existing profile dir: '/users/yanagisawa/.ipython/profile_default'
[TerminalIPythonApp] Searching path ['/users/yanagisawa', '/users/yanagisawa/.ipython/profile_default', '/usr/etc/ipython', '/usr/local/etc/ipython', '/etc/ipython'] for config files
[TerminalIPythonApp] Attempting to load config file: ipython_config.py
[TerminalIPythonApp] Looking for ipython_config in /etc/ipython
[TerminalIPythonApp] Looking for ipython_config in /usr/local/etc/ipython
[TerminalIPythonApp] Looking for ipython_config in /usr/etc/ipython
[TerminalIPythonApp] Looking for ipython_config in /users/yanagisawa/.ipython/profile_default
[TerminalIPythonApp] Loaded config file: /users/yanagisawa/.ipython/profile_default/ipython_config.py
[TerminalIPythonApp] Looking for ipython_config in /users/yanagisawa

Another system also has the same problem

$ pyenv global anaconda3-2018.12
$ python --version
Python 3.7.1
$ ipython --version
7.2.0
$ ipython --log-level=DEBUG
ipython --log-level=DEBUG
[TerminalIPythonApp] IPYTHONDIR set to: /users/yanagisawa/.ipython
[TerminalIPythonApp] Using existing profile dir: '/users/yanagisawa/.ipython/profile_default'
[TerminalIPythonApp] Searching path ['/users/yanagisawa', '/users/yanagisawa/.ipython/profile_default', '/users/yanagisawa/.local/pyenv/versions/anaconda3-2018.12/etc/ipython', '/usr/local/etc/ipython', '/etc/ipython'] for config files
[TerminalIPythonApp] Attempting to load config file: ipython_config.py
[TerminalIPythonApp] Looking for ipython_config in /etc/ipython
[TerminalIPythonApp] Looking for ipython_config in /usr/local/etc/ipython
[TerminalIPythonApp] Looking for ipython_config in /users/yanagisawa/.local/pyenv/versions/anaconda3-2018.12/etc/ipython
[TerminalIPythonApp] Looking for ipython_config in /users/yanagisawa/.ipython/profile_default
[TerminalIPythonApp] Loaded config file: /users/yanagisawa/.ipython/profile_default/ipython_config.py
[TerminalIPythonApp] Looking for ipython_config in /users/yanagisawa

It should be noted that It is on a cluster machine, not own PC. I guess it is related to permission problems thus far (without any reasons).

[jhayes-py]

It looks like the problem has been previously addressed, as the following comment can be found in jupyter_core/dotipython/profile_default/ipython_config.py:

## Path to file to use for SQLite history database.
#
#  By default, IPython will put the history database in the IPython profile
#  directory.  If you would rather share one history among profiles, you can set
#  this value in each, so that they are consistent.
#
#  Due to an issue with fcntl, SQLite is known to misbehave on some NFS mounts.
#  If you see IPython hanging, try setting this to something on a local disk,
#  e.g::
#
#      ipython --HistoryManager.hist_file=/tmp/ipython_hist.sqlite
#
#  you can also use the specific value `:memory:` (including the colon at both
#  end but not the back ticks), to avoid creating an history file.

We were having the aforementioned NFS problem, and IPython did not hang when I used the example command. In our case, the ultimate solution was to update our NFS to version 4.x. Is there any way to catch this problem and return a descriptive error message, instead of hoping someone will read the entirety of ipython_config.py for an answer?

[jacobmatthewmurray]

A solution without updating NFS, alias-ing or symlinking based on this:

ipython profile create


# Edit IPython configuration
vi ~/.ipython/profile_default/ipython_config.py

# Change following two lines
# c.HistoryManager.hist_file=''
# c.HistoryAccessor.hist_file=''

# To:
c.HistoryManager.hist_file=':memory:'
c.HistoryAccessor.hist_file=':memory:' 


jupyter notebook --generate-config

# Edit Jupyter configuration
vi ~/.jupyter/jupyter_notebook_config.py

# Change following line
# c.NotebookNotary.db_file = ''

# To:
c.NotebookNotary.db_file = ':memory:'