[IPython-user] detecting %run

[Fernando Perez]

Glen W. Mabey wrote:
> I have a script that I would like to see behave differently when invoked
> through the generic shell as
>         python the_script.py
> versus via the %run magic command.  Is there a variable or
> something
> that could be tested to know which invocation was used?

Yes, IPython sticks a reference to itself in the builtin namespace:

In [1]: __IPYTHON__
Out[1]: <IPython.iplib.InteractiveShell instance at 0x40061e0c>

for this very purpose.  So you can:

try:
   __IPYTHON__
   # you are in ipython
except NameError:
   # you're not inside ipython

Cheers,

f