(firedrake)am-laptop24:software fpoulin$ /Users/fpoulin/software/firedrake/bin/ipython firedrake/src/firedrake/tests/test_0init.py --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Great news! I aliased python and ipython in path, started virtual env and the test for python works. The not so great news is that ipython still has problems, see below. I think this used to work before I upgraded ipython. This isn't the same problem as before as I am specifying the whole path, but the same thing happens of course even if I simply type ipython. ValueError Traceback (most recent call last) /Users/fpoulin/software/firedrake/src/firedrake/tests/test_0init.py in <module>() 20 if __name__ == '__main__': 21 import os ---> 22 pytest.main(os.path.abspath(__file__)) /Users/fpoulin/software/firedrake/lib/python2.7/site-packages/_pytest/config.pyc in main(args, plugins) 36 try: 37 try: ---> 38 config = _prepareconfig(args, plugins) 39 except ConftestImportFailure as e: 40 tw = py.io.TerminalWriter(sys.stderr) /Users/fpoulin/software/firedrake/lib/python2.7/site-packages/_pytest/config.pyc in _prepareconfig(args, plugins) 103 elif not isinstance(args, (tuple, list)): 104 if not isinstance(args, str): --> 105 raise ValueError("not a string or argument list: %r" % (args,)) 106 args = shlex.split(args) 107 config = get_config() ValueError: not a string or argument list: u'/Users/fpoulin/software/firedrake/src/firedrake/tests/test_0init.py'