nbkickoff

Launch an IPython Notebook from a template notebook file.

Requirements

Tested with:

• Jupyter Notebook 5.5 (or higher)
• Python 3.6

Should also work with other Python 3.x versions.

Installation

For general use, you can install nbkickoff using pip:

pip install nbkickoff

To upgrade to the latest version:

pip install -U nbkickoff

For local development:

git clone https://github.com/lumicks/nbkickoff.git
cd nbkickoff
pip install -e .

Usage

Invoke using either the full:

python -m nbkickoff TEMPLATEFILE TARGETFILE [VAR=VALUE [VAR2=VALUE ...]]

Or, if the corresponding entry point script is on the PATH, the shorter version:

nbkickoff TEMPLATEFILE TARGETFILE [VAR=VALUE [VAR2=VALUE ...]]

Here, TEMPLATEFILE is an IPython Notebook file that functions as a template. This file is copied to TARGETFILE (which must not exist yet), after which all variables in the notebook's cells are substituted with their corresponding values.

So, if your template notebook contains a cell with the text:

my_python_var = '{{ foo }}'

and you invoke nbkickoff using:

nbkickoff template.ipynb my_notebook.ipynb foo=bar

Then your shiny new notebook will have a cell containing:

my_python_var = 'bar'

If a suitable Jupyter server process is already running, nbkickoff opens the new notebook in the existing server. Otherwise, a new Jupyter server process is started. This behavior is based on that of the nbopen tool, with the notable change that nbkickoff always returns immediately; any newly spawned Jupyter server process is detached.