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# Configuring the Kernels

## Kernel Name

If we have multiple kernels installed, we can choose to override the kernel saved in the notebook using nbsphinx_kernel_name:

    nbsphinx_kernel_name = 'python-upstream-dev'

which uses the kernel named `python-upstream-dev` instead of the kernel name stored in the notebook.

## Kernel Arguments

We can pass arguments to the kernel by using nbsphinx_execute_arguments, for example to set plot options:

    nbsphinx_execute_arguments = [
        "--InlineBackend.figure_formats={'svg', 'pdf'}",
    ]

## Environment Variables

The contents of `os.environ` after the execution of `conf.py` will be passed as environment variables to the kernel. As an example, `MY_DUMMY_VARIABLE` has been set in conf.py like this:

    import os
    os.environ['MY_DUMMY_VARIABLE'] = 'Hello from conf.py!'

… and it can be checked in the notebook like this:

    [1]:

    import os
    os.environ['MY_DUMMY_VARIABLE']

    [1]:

    'Hello from conf.py!'

This is useful if we want to edit `PYTHONPATH` in order to compile the documentation without installing the project:

    import os

    src = os.path.abspath('../src')
    os.environ['PYTHONPATH'] = src

If you are using https://mybinder.org/ and you want to define environment variables, you should create a file `.binder/start` in your repository (see Binder docs) containing definitions like this:

    #!/bin/bash
    export MY_DUMMY_VARIABLE="Hello from .binder/start!"
    exec "$@"