Visual Studio Code .env file does not provide access to PYTHONPATH

[pjgoodall]

Problem

I expect to be able to import from modules with subdirectories of the vscode workplaceFolder.
If I try to append to PYTHONPATH using the environment file: ${workspaceFolder}/.env, I get an empty reference to PYTHONPATH within that file. I therefore cannot add the path to my modules to PYTHONPATH from ${workspaceFolder}/.env

I do not want to hard-code a manipulation of the environment into my python source.

This may be an interaction complexity between vscode and conda virtual environments

Files to recreate the environment, and further documentation are in the public github repository https://github.com/pjgoodall/test_vscode_env

[jrieken]

what are trying to achieve? debug? run task?

[pjgoodall]

Develop software- truly Python at the command line does this ok.

…

On Fri, 3 Apr 2020 at 17:22, Johannes Rieken ***@***.***> wrote: what are trying to achieve? debug? run task? — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#94338 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAFPYWWXYMQTG2HOV5KVN4LRKV6C5ANCNFSM4L3OHKKQ> .

[pjgoodall]

I spent hours today isolating this problem

…

On Fri, 3 Apr 2020 at 22:42, Peter Goodall ***@***.***> wrote: Develop software- truly Python at the command line does this ok. On Fri, 3 Apr 2020 at 17:22, Johannes Rieken ***@***.***> wrote: > what are trying to achieve? debug? run task? > > — > You are receiving this because you authored the thread. > Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub > <#94338 (comment)>, > or unsubscribe > <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAFPYWWXYMQTG2HOV5KVN4LRKV6C5ANCNFSM4L3OHKKQ> > . >

[jrieken]

So, what isn't working you? What you are trying to achieve? What is the actual and expected behaviour?

[pjgoodall]

Thanks for your kind attention Johannes,

I'm not sure what isn't clear from the problem description at the top, and the linked repository. So I will try and restate my problem - which could be a misunderstanding on my part. I have also updated the example code in my linked repository: https://github.com/pjgoodall/test_vscode_env

What I'm trying to achieve

Structure a project so I can have separate subdirectories which have .py files which I am using to explore various libraries without cluttering my main development sources. I want all my project efforts in the same simple git-controlled hierarchy.

For instance I need to try out python logging, and interactions between pandas and threading. An example: ThreadPool(2).imap_unordered(acceptTuple, sample.itertuples(index=None))

They are non-trivial explorations (for me). As I evolve them towards being useful in my project I want to be able to import from the libraries I have developed for my main project. The libraries are in sibling directories to my exploration directories. I want to manage access to these libraries not hard-coded into my python source. To separate configuration from code - I don't want to encode paths into my source-code as suggested in stack exchange:

• os.path.append("dir/to/your/library")
• sys.path.append(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))))

What isn't working for me

I asked this question on stackexchange originally. Please read.

After a bunch of docs - which I must say are confusing when trying to put them together, I imagined the inconsistency between my command-line environment and the debugger in vscode (see my stack-exchange post, linked above) could be resolved by moving the PYTHONPATH from using environment variable values configured using conda and autoenv,

conda activate GBIF-REST-API
autostash PATH=$PWD:$PATH
autostash PYTHONPATH=$PWD:$PWD/python_modules

into the vscode ${workspaceFolder}/.env file.

I assumed that PYTHONPATH would normally be set in any python environment. It is not apparently set by default in conda environments. Conda seems totally focussed on runtime libraries - so PYTHONPATH is probably a configuration liability for them whereas I believe it gives needed flexibility during development.

The problems are:

• I cannot sync the 'run' and 'debug' environments using the ${workspaceFolder}/.env file. If you don't see this effect, try editing the .env file from within vscode. I suspect there is a file-watching update difference between the debug and run environments.

• I cannot set the PYTHONPATH environment variable from ${workspaceFolder}/.env. This does not work for either the run or debug functions.

My updated tests should show this. https://github.com/pjgoodall/test_vscode_env

Cheers,
--Peter G

[pjgoodall]

I'm also starting to think ${workspaceFolder}/.env is not of use because its effects are not available to the direct command-line. But the vscode debug environment doesn't seem to see the enclosing environment. Quite confusing - vscode is a festival of settings :-)

[jrieken]

Ok, I believe this should have been filed here: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-python. We only provide the "framework" in which python support operates and have little knowledge about its internals.

[pjgoodall]

Thanks Johannes,
Are you able to re-file this appropriately?
My apologies. This is the first time I’ve really used both python and vscode determinedly.
Cheers,
—Peter G

[jrieken]

I also cannot simply transfer the issue....

[jrieken]

/extPython

[vscode-triage-bot]

It looks like this is caused by the Python extension. Please file it with the repository here. Make sure to check their issue reporting template and provide them relevant information such as the extension version you're using. See also our issue reporting guidelines for more information.

Happy Coding!