[FIXED] Default notebook directory in iPython Notebook - iPython 3.0.0

Issue

I upgraded to iPython 3.0.0 (Python 3.4; using the Anaconda environment; Mac OSX 10.9.5) and the behavior on opening a new iPython Notebook session seems to have changed. I have set the c.NotebookManager.notebook_dir option in ipython_notebook_config.py to a particular directory; this used to cause the browser to open in that directory, but now the browser opens in the current working directory:

Serving notebooks from local directory: /Users/ite1

I've checked that I've modified the config files that iPython is using; on opening it says Using existing profile dir: '/Users/ite1/.ipython/profile_default' and the config files in there are indeed set to the appropriate default.

I also re-generated config files in all my profiles, set the notebook_dir in each, and still didn't get what I consider correct behavior.

Setting the same option on the command line does work:

ipython notebook --notebook-dir "/Users/ite1/Documents/iPython notebooks"

opens the browser in the correct directory:

Serving notebooks from local directory: /Users/ite1/Documents/iPython notebooks

The fact that this worked in the last version and doesn't work now, and that it works from the command line but not the config files, makes me wonder if this is a bug, but it's also possible that the method for setting a default directory to open in has changed.

Solution

The config has changed for this; it's now FileContentsManager.root_dir.

Answered By - iayork