How to ACTUALLY set environment variables in PyCharm?

Question

I am attempting to run a series of tests for a python project in PyCharm and have been running into os.environ[] KeyErrors near non-stop the last few days. Device is a MacBook Pro M2.

I can access the env vars from the built in "Terminal" but booting up python and testing with os.environ, but not when I actually go and run the test or debug. That's when the KeyErrors come up.

Here's what I have done so far:

1. gone to Run>Edit Configurations and added my env vars there
2. gone to Settings>Build,Execution,Deployment>Console>Python Console and added them there too
3. gone to tools>Terminal and done the same.

The current workaround is to add an EnvFile config for every individual test. It seems like Run>Edit Configurations does absolutely nothing unless I specify the exact file_name/python_function. Creating a run config for an entire test folder doesn't seem to do anything.

Here is the content of my config.xml file:

<component name="ProjectRunConfigurationManager">
  <configuration default="false" name="Unittests in tests/unit" type="tests" factoryName="Unittests">
    <module name="smde_refactor" />
    <option name="INTERPRETER_OPTIONS" value="" />
    <option name="PARENT_ENVS" value="true" />
    <option name="SDK_HOME" value="$PROJECT_DIR$/venv/bin/python" />
    <option name="SDK_NAME" value="Python 3.10 (smde_refactor)" />
    <option name="WORKING_DIRECTORY" value="" />
    <option name="IS_MODULE_SDK" value="false" />
    <option name="ADD_CONTENT_ROOTS" value="true" />
    <option name="ADD_SOURCE_ROOTS" value="true" />
    <EXTENSION ID="net.ashald.envfile">
      <option name="IS_ENABLED" value="true" />
      <option name="IS_SUBST" value="false" />
      <option name="IS_PATH_MACRO_SUPPORTED" value="false" />
      <option name="IS_IGNORE_MISSING_FILES" value="false" />
      <option name="IS_ENABLE_EXPERIMENTAL_INTEGRATIONS" value="false" />
      <ENTRIES>
        <ENTRY IS_ENABLED="true" PARSER="runconfig" IS_EXECUTABLE="false" />
        <ENTRY IS_ENABLED="true" PARSER="env" IS_EXECUTABLE="false" PATH="tests/unit/environment.env" />
      </ENTRIES>
    </EXTENSION>
    <option name="_new_pattern" value="&quot;&quot;" />
    <option name="_new_additionalArguments" value="&quot;&quot;" />
    <option name="_new_target" value="&quot;$PROJECT_DIR$/tests/unit&quot;" />
    <option name="_new_targetType" value="&quot;PATH&quot;" />
    <method v="2" />
  </configuration>
</component>

^I know this is a folder instead of a script -- but even when a specific script is selected there's still no luck picking up env vars with any of the functions inside that script.

If I run a.py script as a whole (after adding env vars to the run config), it succeeds (os.environ picked up.). But if I run any of the tests within that,py script individually. they all fail (could not pick up os.environ).

Thank you!

Answer 1

Here is a sample configuration that invokes Pytest on tests/ folder:

<component name="ProjectRunConfigurationManager">
  <configuration default="false" name="All tests" type="tests" factoryName="py.test">
    <module name="$PROJECT_NAME" />
    <option name="INTERPRETER_OPTIONS" value="" />
    <option name="PARENT_ENVS" value="true" />
    <envs>
      <env name="ABC" value="XXX" />
    </envs>
    <option name="SDK_HOME" value="" />
    <option name="WORKING_DIRECTORY" value="" />
    <option name="IS_MODULE_SDK" value="true" />
    <option name="ADD_CONTENT_ROOTS" value="true" />
    <option name="ADD_SOURCE_ROOTS" value="true" />
    <EXTENSION ID="PythonCoverageRunConfigurationExtension" runner="coverage.py" />
    <option name="_new_keywords" value="&quot;&quot;" />
    <option name="_new_parameters" value="&quot;&quot;" />
    <option name="_new_additionalArguments" value="&quot;--tb\u003dshort&quot;"/>
    <option name="_new_target" value="&quot;$PROJECT_DIR$/tests&quot;" />
    <option name="_new_targetType" value="&quot;PATH&quot;" />
    <method v="2" />
  </configuration>
</component>

As you can see, there is an <envs> section within which ABC variable is being set to XXX . Also take a note of factoryName being py.test instead of your Unittests , which is a different type of run config.

To have the env variables automatically set for each run config that gets automatically created when you click on a green arrow next to a test function in the editor, you need two things:

1. Make sure that Preferences -> Tools -> Python Integrated Tools -> Testing -> Default test runner is set to pytest .
2. In Edit configurations... -> Edit configuration templates... -> Python tests -> pytest -> Environment variables set all the env variables that you want to have.

However, I realise that you are using EnvFile plugin and that might be completely invalidating what I have written above which is demonstrating built-in PyCharm functionality. If you want to test my example, I suggest you disable the plugin for a while.

Answer 2

Well...

tmt was correct -- all I really needed to do was mess around in Run>Edit Configurations for a few minutes.

The key was to then go in and "Edit configuration templates". Just to make sure, I added the env vars desired to the templates for Python, Python tests/pytest and Python tests/Unittests.

^THIS did not work immediately. I had to go and delete all my existing configs that appear when I first opened Run>Edit Configurations.

Then voila -- all pytests scripts+modules in the folder started picking up on the required env vars.

*on a side note, I think the EnvFile plug-in adds that

<ENTRY IS_ENABLED="true" PARSER="env" IS_EXECUTABLE="false" PATH="tests/unit/environment.env" />

line under ENTRIES instead of specifying the keys/values directly in the.xml (not that it worked anyway)