[FIXED] How do I adjust the number of spaces ipython uses for indentation in the terminal?

Issue

I use ipython in a terminal (NOT in a notebook), and by default it autoindents with 4 spaces.

How do I change the number of automatically-inserted spaces?

Solution

Number of spaces inserted by the TAB key

Assuming you are on Linux, you can locate your ipython installation directory with:

which ipython

It will return you a path which ends in /bin/ipython. Change directory to that path without the ending part /bin/ipython.

Then locate the shortcuts.py file where the indent buffer is defined:

find ./ -type f -name "shortcuts.py"

And in that file, replace 4 in the below function by 2:

def indent_buffer(event):
    event.current_buffer.insert_text(' ' * 4)

Unfortunately, the 4 above is not exposed as a configuration, so we currently have to edit each ipython installation. That's cumbersome when working with many environments.

Number of spaces inserted by autoindent

Visit /path/to/your/IPython/core/inputtransformer2.py and modify two locations where the number of spaces is hard-coded as 4:

diff --git a/IPython/core/inputtransformer2.py b/IPython/core/inputtransformer2.py
index 37f0e7699..7f6f4ddb7 100644
--- a/IPython/core/inputtransformer2.py
+++ b/IPython/core/inputtransformer2.py
@@ -563,6 +563,7 @@ def show_linewise_tokens(s: str):
 
 # Arbitrary limit to prevent getting stuck in infinite loops
 TRANSFORM_LOOP_LIMIT = 500
+INDENT_SPACES = 2  # or whatever you prefer!
 
 class TransformerManager:
     """Applies various transformations to a cell or code block.
@@ -744,7 +745,7 @@ def check_complete(self, cell: str):
                 ix += 1
 
             indent = tokens_by_line[-1][ix].start[1]
-            return 'incomplete', indent + 4
+            return 'incomplete', indent + INDENT_SPACES
 
         if tokens_by_line[-1][0].line.endswith('\\'):
             return 'incomplete', None
@@ -778,7 +779,7 @@ def find_last_indent(lines):
     m = _indent_re.match(lines[-1])
     if not m:
         return 0
-    return len(m.group(0).replace('\t', ' '*4))
+    return len(m.group(0).replace('\t', ' '*INDENT_SPACES))
 
 
 class MaybeAsyncCompile(Compile):

Answered By - tacon