How can I open an IPython notebook without the output? - ipython

Question

I have an IPython notebook where I've accidentally dumped a huge output (15 MB) that crashed the notebook. Now when I open the notebook and attempt to delete the troublesome cell, the notebook crashes again—thus preventing me from fixing the problem and restoring the notebook to stability.
The best fix I can think of is manually pasting the input cells to a new notebook, but is there a way to just open the notebook without any outputs?

Answer 1

you can use cli to clear outputs
jupyter nbconvert --ClearOutputPreprocessor.enabled=True --inplace Notebook.ipynb

Answer 2

There is this nice snippet (that I use as a git commit hook) to strip the output of an ipython notebook:
#!/usr/bin/env python
def strip_output(nb):
for ws in nb.worksheets:
for cell in ws.cells:
if hasattr(cell, "outputs"):
cell.outputs = []
if hasattr(cell, "prompt_number"):
del cell["prompt_number"]
if __name__ == "__main__":
from sys import stdin, stdout
from IPython.nbformat.current import read, write
nb = read(stdin, "ipynb")
strip_output(nb)
write(nb, stdout, "ipynb")
stdout.write("\n")
You can easily make it a bit nicer to use, currently you'd have to call it as
strip_output.py < my_notebook.ipynb > my_notebook_stripped.ipynb

Answer 3

If you are running jupyter 4.x, you will get some API deprecation warnings when running filmor's script. Although the script still works, I update the script a bit to remove the warnings.
#!/usr/bin/env python
def strip_output(nb):
for cell in nb.cells:
if hasattr(cell, "outputs"):
cell.outputs = []
if hasattr(cell, "prompt_number"):
del cell["prompt_number"]
if __name__ == "__main__":
from sys import stdin, stdout
from nbformat import read, write
nb = read(stdin, 4)
strip_output(nb)
write(nb, stdout, 4)
stdout.write("\n")

Answer 4

As for later versions of jupyter, there is a Restart Kernel and Clear All Outputs... option that clears the outputs but also removed the variables.

Answer 5

Here is a further modification from #Edward Fung's answer that will output the cleaned notebook to a new file rather than rely on stin and stout
from nbformat import read, write
def strip_output(nb):
for cell in nb.cells:
if hasattr(cell, "outputs"):
cell.outputs = []
if hasattr(cell, "prompt_number"):
del cell["prompt_number"]
nb = read(open("my_notebook.ipynb"), 4)
strip_output(nb)
write(nb, open("my_notebook_cleaned.ipynb", "w"), 4)

Answer 6

Using the --ClearOutputPreprocessor, you can reduce the size of your notebook file due to the outputs.
jupyter nbconvert --ClearOutputPreprocessor.enabled=True --inplace sample.ipynb
Note that --clear-output is the broken command like below:
jupyter nbconvert --clear-output --inplace sample.ipynb
In my case, I tried to see the answer to this question, but I found out that it is a command that cannot remove output.

Answer 7

I am not able to post a commenet, so feel free to edit/move to #Shumaila Ahmed answer.
I had to use quotes on the file path, as:
jupyter nbconvert --ClearOutputPreprocessor.enabled=True --inplace 'Notebook.ipynb'
Works like charm on Ubuntu 21.04, thanks!