Need a way to find tools (linters, formatters) via PATH

[pfmoore]

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, if I enable a linter like flake8, VS Code expects it to be installed in my Python environment (and specifically, if I don't set Flake8Path in my settings, that's where the extension will look).

I don't install tools like flake8 or black under my project - rather, I have a separate installation using a tool-specific virtualenv (essentially using a mechanism like pipx to manage my tools, although I actually use a custom solution). So I have flake8 and black commands on my PATH.

If I want to use my globally-installed tools, I appear to have to specify the exact path to them in my VS Code settings - which is not ideal, as the whole point of installing them centrally is that no other tools have to know where they are located, they can just access them via PATH. As things stand, if I move my tool directory, my VS Code config breaks.

Please provide a way to tell VS Code to search PATH for tool locations. Even if it's not the default, and I need to check something that says "search for flake8 on PATH", etc, that would at least allow me to make my VS Code configuration portable.

[DonJayamanne]

• As things stand, if I move my tool directory, my VS Code config breaks.
  • Unfortunately that's not something we can fix.
  • The same applies to, If i move my interpreter VS Code config breaks
• As things stand, if I move my tool directory, my VS Code config breaks.
  • You can update your global user settings.json file,
  • This way you need to only update one settings.json file (scoped to one place/one file)
• Install your tools in a the --user space (pip install with --user option)
  • Let me know how that goes
• Also try creating a .env file in your workspace
  • Ensure to add a variable for PYTHONPATH=xyz where xyz is the location where your tools reside.

Closing as there are at least 2 alternatives today (define path to tool in user config or install tool with --user option).

[pfmoore]

As things stand, if I move my tool directory, my VS Code config breaks.

• Unfortunately that's not something we can fix.
• The same applies to, If i move my interpreter VS Code config breaks

As things stand, if I move my tool directory, my VS Code config breaks.

• You can update your global user settings.json file,
• This way you need to only update one settings.json file (scoped to one place/one file)

OK, so basically both of these are "you have to hard code the paths, and update the settings if they change". I know that's an option, but IMO it's not ideal. I guess if you're saying "tough", I have to put up with that :-(

Install your tools in a the --user space (pip install with --user option)

• Let me know how that goes

That has the same problem as installing into a specific Python interpreter, it's linked to the system installation. Unless I'm misunderstanding you, the tool won't be visible if I'm working on code that uses a different environment.

Also try creating a .env file in your workspace

• Ensure to add a variable for PYTHONPATH=xyz where xyz is the location where your tools reside.

I don't know what you mean here, the tools are exe files (flake8.exe) so PYTHONPATH isn't relevant, is it?

[gramster]

Re-opening this issue as we haven't addressed the customer's issue.

[DonJayamanne]

I don't know what you mean here, the tools are exe files (flake8.exe) so PYTHONPATH isn't relevant, is it?

Oops, you are right, I meant PATH.

[pfmoore]

OK, so maybe I'm still confused. My user settings.json contains just

{
    "workbench.iconTheme": "vscode-icons",
    "vsicons.dontShowNewVersionMessage": true
}

My PATH environment variable contains E:\Utils\PyTools\bin, and in that directory I have E:\Utils\PyTools\bin\pylint.exe (which works fine from the command line).

When I open my project directory, I get the error "Linter pylint is not installed". So it doesn't seem to be searching PATH.

You mention a .env file - which, according to #544 (and my attempts to search for information) isn't documented. But even from the information in #544, I'm not clear how I'd write something in a .env file that would add a directory to PATH (rather than just replacing the whole value) - and even if I could, would that not mean I'd have to put something in every project where I wanted to use a linter? That seems even less portable than hard-coding the full path to pylint...

It's entirely possible I'm doing something wrong here, I'm only just starting to experiment with linter support, and I acknowledge that my preference for not installing a linter into every project environment is uncommon. But if so, I'd still like to know what it is that I'm getting wrong.

[DonJayamanne]

would that not mean I'd have to put something in every project where I wanted to use a linter? That seems even less portable than hard-coding the full path to pylint...

Unfortunately we currently do not have a solution for this. Please leave this with me, and we'll get back to you on this.