How can I make ipdb show more lines of context while debugging?

Question

By default, during debugging in IPython, ipdb shows one line above and one line below the current position in code.

Is there an easy way to make the area shown a bit b

Answer 1

Here's a patch to permanently set context for your program:

(works across set_trace and post_mortem)

def ipdb_patch(context = 11):
    import ipdb
    ipdbmain = ipdb.__main__
    def _init_pdb(context=context, commands=[]):
        try              : p = ipdbmain.debugger_cls(context=context)
        except TypeError : p = ipdbmain.debugger_cls()
        p.rcLines.extend(commands)
        return p
    def set_trace(frame=None, context=context):
        ipdbmain.wrap_sys_excepthook()
        if frame is None : frame = ipdbmain.sys._getframe().f_back
        p = ipdbmain._init_pdb(context).set_trace(frame)
        if p and hasattr(p, 'shell') : p.shell.restore_sys_module_state()
    ipdbmain._init_pdb = _init_pdb
    ipdb.set_trace = set_trace
    return ipdb
ipdb = ipdb_patch()

to add breakpoint() functionality simply add:

import sys
sys.breakpointhook = ipdb.set_trace

With that all the following commands have the right context size:

ipdb.set_trace()
breakpoint()
ipdb.post_mortem()
ipdb.pm()
%debug

It does not however work with this:

In [1]: %run -d file.py

If you know how to adjust that, please feel free to drop in comments