Ubuntu 20.04 中 `python3-ipython` 和 `ipython3` 包之间的区别

Question

While querying on Ubuntu 20.04 for an ipython package (tried pip3 install ipython first, but that didn't give me the ipython3 binary I was looking for) I found there are two packages:

$ ~/dev/romanyh$ sudo apt search ipython3
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
ipython3/focal,focal,now 7.13.0-1 all [installed]
  Enhanced interactive Python 3 shell

python3-ipython/focal,focal,now 7.13.0-1 all [installed]
  Enhanced interactive Python shell (Python 3 version)

I first tried python3-ipython because others (eg, pip and venv ) follow this naming convention, but it didn't give me the ipython3 binary I was looking for. It seems the effect was similar to running pip3 install ipython .

I ended up installing both, the ipython3 package did get me the binary I was looking for.

My question is: What is the difference between these packages? Why are both of them available?

Answer 1

I had this very same doubt today. Normally I get better result installing the distribution specific packages than using pip. (as already explained in the comments)

Edited: I though you should get the same results installing any of those packages... I was not able to execute ipython3 until I installed the package ipython. (this was in ubuntu cotainer on docker)

python3 (it is almost an "empty" package) that depends on python3-ipython