Document how .env files work

[brettcannon]

Should probably cover it in https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/environments. Came up due to confusion found at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48120642/visual-studio-code-python-import-paths .

[brettcannon]

@DonJayamanne Is it just a file named .env? And is it just every line formatted at var=val? Comments allowed somehow or anything else that one needs to know to document this?

[DonJayamanne]

• Comments starting with # are ignored
• Multi line variables are not supported
• Basic format is var=val
• The name of the file defaults to .env,
• The name of the file is configurable in the (use/workspace) settings as follows:

"python.envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/environmentFile.txt"

• The name of the file is configurable in the debugger launch settings as follows:

"envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/environmentFile.txt",

• If the setting envFile (listed previously) is not available in the launch.json (debugger settings file), then the environment file will not be loaded (i.e there are no defaults if the setting is missing from the configuration file).

[brettcannon]

So if python.envFile is required to be set for this to work, what is the default file name of .env from? Is there a command to create it or something?

[DonJayamanne]

So if python.envFile is required to be set for this to work,

Yes

what is the default file name of .env from

This default value comes from the configuration settings in package.json for python.envFile.
I.e. even if the user doesn't provide this, the default is ${workspaceFolder}/.env

Is there a command to create it or something?

No. Currently we expect the user to create a file maually (named .env or other and configure the settings accordingly).

[brettcannon]

OK, so python.envFile isn't directly required because we provide a default value.

[DonJayamanne]

OK, so python.envFile isn't directly required because we provide a default value.

Yes

[monkeez]

Can you set values in the .env file that get picked up in the python workspace settings?

Say I had an .env file with:

MY_VARIABLE=C:/some/path/

Then in my workspace settings I had:

{
    "python.pythonPath": "${env:MY_VARIABLE}/python"
}

Would this work?

[DonJayamanne]

@monkeez
No this wouldn't.

[barakbd]

I have a multi-line variable (encrypted private key). How can I get around this issue?

[DonJayamanne]

@barakbd please create a separate issue for this (so it can be tracked). Currently its not supported, but should be easy to fix.