vscode doesn't seem to activate my virtual python environment

Question

I have some python code that I wrote and have just installed vscode and starting to work with it.

the code is in home/user/code/dlS3BMC folder which has a env folder with my virtual environment. I am using Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia cinnamon desktop, vscode 1.41.1

I open this folder in vscode. ctrl+ shft+p and I see my virtual environment, I select it, but when I do which python in the terminal window it is still pointing to the system python /usr/bin/python

If I . env/bin/activate in the terminal everything works fine - I don't mind doing that but it would be nice if I didn't have to.

From the microsoft docs I think it is supposed to automatically activate the env, but it does not. I have tried saving project after I activate, but when I close and open again, it is not activated. Sorry I am very new to vscode at this stage and have just used sublime text editor to write my python code in the past.

Thanks Bill

Answer 1

ok, it seems it does not activate the virtual environment until you run the code either debug or simply run... when you run the code, I can see it activate the env.

TIL this.

Regards Bill

Answer 2

This is a known issue in VS Code (still... nearly 2 years later). If you would like to see it fixed, you can give the VSCode Github issue a "thumbsup". If it reaches 20 before Jan 10th, it'll be added to their development roadmap