Launch an IPython shell on exception

Question

Is there a way to launch an IPython shell or prompt when my program runs a line that raises an exception?

I\'m mostly interested in the context, variables, in the sc

Answer 1

@Adam's works like a charm except that IPython loads a bit slowly(800ms on my machine). Here I have a trick to make the load lazy.

class ExceptionHook:
    instance = None

    def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        if self.instance is None:
            from IPython.core import ultratb
            self.instance = ultratb.FormattedTB(mode='Verbose',
                 color_scheme='Linux', call_pdb=1)
        return self.instance(*args, **kwargs)
sys.excepthook = ExceptionHook()

Now we don't need to wait at the very beginning. Only when the program crashes will cause IPython to be imported.