[FIXED] Why does pip need an exclamation point to use in iPython?

Issue

Just a quick example, typing pip list doesn't work but !pip list does. Is there some syntax regarding the exclamation point and using modules in the ipython shell?

Solution

This is actually not specific to pip, but really any shell command from the iPython notebook. You'll notice other shell commands also work (from the docs):

In[1]: !pwd
/User/home/

Change directory:

In[1]: !cd /var/etc

This is simply shorthand that the good folks at Jupyter have included. See Shell Assignment in the docs for more of an explanation.

Answered By - TayTay