This looks like http://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/24453/weird-shell-output-when-using-ipython-5, but it actually is not. I did set (setq python-shell-interpreter-args "--simple-prompt -i --pylab") in .emacs, but I get the following error: Python 2.7.12 (default, Nov 19 2016, 06:48:10) Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. IPython 5.1.0 -- An enhanced Interactive Python. ? -> Introduction and overview of IPython's features. %quickref -> Quick reference. help -> Python's own help system. object? -> Details about 'object', use 'object??' for extra details. Using matplotlib backend: TkAgg Warning: disable autoreload in ipython_config.py to improve performance. In [1]: In [2]: In [3]: In [4]: for i in reange(3): File "<ipython-input-4-658181e351fb>", line 1 for i in range(3): ^ SyntaxError: unexpected EOF while parsing This appears after I hit return. I was expecting the interpreter to wait for the content of the loop. Note that if I do not set the python-shell-interpreter-args, the prompt is garbage, but there is no error.