Use IPython magic functions in ipdb shell

Question

When debugging Python script using ipdb my_script.py, I want to use IPython magic functions like %paste, %cd in ipdb debug se

Answer 1

According to the ipdb Github repo magic IPython functions are not available. Fortunately, the IPython debugger provides a couple of clues of how to get this functionality without launching a separate IPython shell.

Here is what I did to run %cpaste:

ipdb> from IPython import get_ipython
ipdb> shell = get_ipython()
ipdb> shell.find_line_magic('cpaste')()
Pasting code; enter '--' alone on the line to stop or use Ctrl-D.
:for i in range(0,5):
:       print i
:--
0
1
2
3
4

This way, you can step through your code and have access to all the IPython magic functions via the method find_line_magic(your_magic_function).