How do I convert a IPython Notebook into a Python file via commandline?

Question

I'm looking at using the *.ipynb files as the source of truth and programmatically 'compiling' them into .py files for scheduled jobs/tasks.

The only way I understand to do this is via the GUI. Is there a way to do it via command line?

Answer 1

If you don't want to output a Python script every time you save, or you don't want to restart the IPython kernel:

On the command line, you can use nbconvert:

$ jupyter nbconvert --to script [YOUR_NOTEBOOK].ipynb

As a bit of a hack, you can even call the above command in an IPython notebook by pre-pending ! (used for any command line argument). Inside a notebook:

!jupyter nbconvert --to script config_template.ipynb

Before --to script was added, the option was --to python or --to=python, but it was renamed in the move toward a language-agnostic notebook system.

Answer 2

If you want to convert all *.ipynb files from current directory to python script, you can run the command like this:

jupyter nbconvert --to script *.ipynb

Answer 3

Here is a quick and dirty way to extract the code from V3 or V4 ipynb without using ipython. It does not check cell types, etc.

import sys,json

f = open(sys.argv[1], 'r') #input.ipynb
j = json.load(f)
of = open(sys.argv[2], 'w') #output.py
if j["nbformat"] >=4:
        for i,cell in enumerate(j["cells"]):
                of.write("#cell "+str(i)+"\n")
                for line in cell["source"]:
                        of.write(line)
                of.write('\n\n')
else:
        for i,cell in enumerate(j["worksheets"][0]["cells"]):
                of.write("#cell "+str(i)+"\n")
                for line in cell["input"]:
                        of.write(line)
                of.write('\n\n')

of.close()

Answer 4

Following the previous example but with the new nbformat lib version :

import nbformat
from nbconvert import PythonExporter

def convertNotebook(notebookPath, modulePath):

  with open(notebookPath) as fh:
    nb = nbformat.reads(fh.read(), nbformat.NO_CONVERT)

  exporter = PythonExporter()
  source, meta = exporter.from_notebook_node(nb)

  with open(modulePath, 'w+') as fh:
    fh.writelines(source.encode('utf-8'))

Answer 5

Jupytext is nice to have in your toolchain for such conversions. It allows not only conversion from a notebook to a script, but you can go back again from the script to notebook as well. And even have that notebook produced in executed form.

jupytext --to py notebook.ipynb                 # convert notebook.ipynb to a .py file
jupytext --to notebook notebook.py              # convert notebook.py to an .ipynb file with no outputs
jupytext --to notebook --execute notebook.py    # convert notebook.py to an .ipynb file and run it 

Answer 6

You can do this from the IPython API.

from IPython.nbformat import current as nbformat
from IPython.nbconvert import PythonExporter

filepath = 'path/to/my_notebook.ipynb'
export_path = 'path/to/my_notebook.py'

with open(filepath) as fh:
    nb = nbformat.reads_json(fh.read())

exporter = PythonExporter()

# source is a tuple of python source code
# meta contains metadata
source, meta = exporter.from_notebook_node(nb)

with open(export_path, 'w+') as fh:
    fh.writelines(source)

Answer 7

I understand this is an old thread. I have faced the same issue and wanted to convert the .pynb file to .py file via command line.

My search took me to ipynb-py-convert

By following below steps I was able to get .py file

1. Install "pip install ipynb-py-convert"
2. Go to the directory where the ipynb file is saved via command prompt
3. Enter the command

> ipynb-py-convert YourFileName.ipynb YourFilename.py

Eg:. ipynb-py-convert getting-started-with-kaggle-titanic-problem.ipynb getting-started-with-kaggle-titanic-problem.py

Above command will create a python script with the name "YourFileName.py" and as per our example it will create getting-started-with-kaggle-titanic-problem.py file

Answer 8

The following example turns an Iron Python Notebook called a_notebook.ipynb into a python script called a_python_script.py leaving out the cells tagged with the keyword remove, which I add manually to the cells that I don't want to end up in the script, leaving out visualizations and other steps that once I am done with the notebook I don't need to be executed by the script.

import nbformat as nbf
from nbconvert.exporters import PythonExporter
from nbconvert.preprocessors import TagRemovePreprocessor

with open("a_notebook.ipynb", 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    the_notebook_nodes = nbf.read(f, as_version = 4)

trp = TagRemovePreprocessor()

trp.remove_cell_tags = ("remove",)

pexp = PythonExporter()

pexp.register_preprocessor(trp, enabled= True)

the_python_script, meta = pexp.from_notebook_node(the_notebook_nodes)

with open("a_python_script.py", 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    f.writelines(the_python_script)

Answer 9

For converting all *.ipynb format files in current directory to python scripts recursively:

for i in *.ipynb **/*.ipynb; do 
    echo "$i"
    jupyter nbconvert  "$i" "$i"
done

Answer 10

Using nbconvert 6.07 and jupyter client 6.1.12:

Convert jupyter notebook to python script

$ jupyter nbconvert mynotebook.ipynb --to python

Convert jupyter notebook to python script specifying output filename

$ jupyter nbconvert mynotebook.ipnb --to python --output myscript.py

Answer 11

There's a very nice package called nb_dev which is designed for authoring Python packages in Jupyter Notebooks. Like nbconvert, it can turn a notebook into a .py file, but it is more flexible and powerful because it has a lot of nice additional authoring features to help you develop tests, documentation, and register packages on PyPI. It was developed by the fast.ai folks.

It has a bit of a learning curve, but the documentation is good and it is not difficult overall.

Answer 12

no file/directory error

On my mint [ubuntu] system at work, even though jupyter was already installed and notebooks worked, jupyter nbconvert --to script gave the error no file/directory until I did a separate

sudo apt-get install jupyter-nbconvert

Then all was fine with the conversion. I just wanted to add this in case anyone hits the same error (for me it was confusing as I thought the no file error referred to the notebook, which was definitely there in the local directory, took me a while to realize the subcommand was not installed).