PyDev for VSCode Manual

Welcome to the PyDev for VSCode manual. This document provides an overview of the features, settings, and release history of the PyDev extension for Visual Studio Code.

Introduction

PyDev is a powerful Python development environment for Visual Studio Code, offering features such as code completion, real-time code analysis, and integration with popular Python tools and frameworks. This manual will guide you through the key functionalities and configurations available in PyDev.

Installation

PyDev is available at:

• The Visual Studio Code marketplace in https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=fabioz.vscode-pydev.

• The Open VSX Registry in https://open-vsx.org/extension/fabioz/vscode-pydev.

Also, it's expected that the Python Debugger (PyDev) extension is also installed and it's required for launching and debugging Python code.

It's available at:

• The Visual Studio Code marketplace in https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=fabioz.vscode-pydev-python-debugger.

• The Open VSX Registry in https://open-vsx.org/extension/fabioz/vscode-pydev-python-debugger.

Running PyDev for VSCode

To run, PyDev for VSCode requires java, so, right after installing the extension, when the extension is activated, you should be asked whether the extension should download a compatible version of java and use it (which is usually recommended) or if you want to specify the path to the JAVA_HOME directory (which is the directory expected to contain the /bin/java executable) or whether (alternatively, the python.pydev.java.home setting can be used to specify the path to JAVA_HOME to the same effect).

Specifying the Python interpreter and Python Path

The Python interpreter and Python Path are used to determine the Python interpreter and PYTHONPATH to be used for code completion, code analysis, go to definition, running code, etc. and as such it's the most important thing to be configured (if it's not properly configured, the extension will not work as expected and you'll end up having code analysis errors, code completion may not show expected completions, etc.).

Since 0.14.0, PyDev for VSCode should be able to automatically detect the Python interpreter and source folders for multiple projects in the workspace from information found in the .pyproject.toml file (if present) or from a .venv directory (if present). See: Multiple projects handling for more information.

It's possible to disable this feature by setting the python.pydev.autoDetectProjects setting to false. In this case, the python.pydev.pythonExecutable and python.pydev.pythonPath settings directly specified in the settings will be used (but then, currently only a single interpreter and PYTHONPATH will be used for the whole workspace).

Note that for files that are not found to be a part of any project, the python.pydev.pythonExecutable and python.pydev.pythonPath settings will be used as the fallback interpreter and PYTHONPATH.

Support and Feedback

For support and feedback, please visit the PyDev Tracker to report issues or suggest improvements.