Set modules that the application needs

In pycharm, there is a function in which I can add modules to which my project needs, externally, this is very useful when we are developing normal applications and modules, in pycharm we have "project dependencies" in which I point the module to which my project depends and with that instead of debug looking for virtualenv it looks for the module in that specific path. VSCode has some functionality of this type for python, I have already done several searches and I couldn't find something like that, and it is sorely missed when developing applications and modules at the same time.

[int19h]

I'm not sure that I follow. What exactly does this feature do from the debugging perspective?

It allows you to enter the module you are developing locally. Example:

usrpath / project /
| ____ app.py

# app.py
# pip install module


from module import module

module().init_app()

usrpath / module /
| ____ module.py

# modulo.py
class module:
    def init_app():
        print('Hello')

Later on when we add this module to the pip and do the installation it ends up being installed in the sites-packages folder, but we have it developed locally, and we want to point the module manually inside the debugger to be able to debug this module in its original usrpath / module
Today I can add this module to PYTHONPATH and use breakpoint as usual, but vscode totally loses symlinks references, sometimes it goes inside venv sites-packages or else it completely loses symlinks and I can't get references from the application as a whole, sometimes even the python interpreter.

[int19h]

If I'm understanding correctly, this last part is a bug. For your scenario, pointing PYTHONPATH at the development location is the appropriate workflow, and the debugger should "just work".

Can you file specific bugs for things that don't work with symlinks?

Today I end up using it that way inside vscode but it doesn't work 100% because it loses the reference of the interpreter and you can't use symlinks anymore, but I can debug the module. So my proposal is this, look at pycharm's project dependencies and add more efficiently within vscode, in my view this is the only point that still bothers many people using the editor.
Task reference:
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/current-project.html

As I use today to use the debugger in the local module, outside of sites-packages

//workspace.json

{
  "folders": [
    {
      "path": "/ usr / localpathapplication / application / src",
    },
    {
      "path": "/ usr / localpathmodule / module / src"
    }
  ],
  "settings": {
    "search.followSymlinks": true,
    "python.pythonPath": "/ usr / localpathinterpreter / interpreter / bin /",
    "python.linting.flake8Enabled": true,
  },
  "launch": {
    "configurations": [
      {
        "name": "Python: Duedate Tasks",
        "type": "python",
        "request": "launch",
        "cwd": "$ {workspaceFolder: src}",
        "program": "app.py",
        "console": "integratedTerminal",
        "python": "/ usr / localpathinterpreter / interpreter / bin / python",
        "gevent": true,
        "justMyCode": false,
        "env": {
          "LOG_LEVEL": "INFO",
          "PYTHONPATH": "/usr/localpathinterpreter/interpreter/lib/python3.7/site-packages:${env:PYTHONPATH}"
        },
      }
    ]
  }
}

If I'm understanding correctly, this last part is a bug. For your scenario, pointing PYTHONPATH at the development location is the appropriate workflow, and the debugger should "just work".

Can you file specific bugs for things that don't work with symlinks?

how could you do that? can you help me?

[int19h]

It sounds like what you're asking is similar to this feature that we have in Visual Studio (but not in VSCode)?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/python/managing-python-projects-in-visual-studio?view=vs-2019#references

So in VS, for a solution/workspace with multiple Python projects, you can add one as a reference to another, and the IDE takes care of automatically setting PYTHONPATH for you for all activities involved - editing, debugging etc. But we don't have the equivalent of that for multi-root projects in VSCode - you have to set up the references manually.

And can we not have this type of behavior inside vscode? do it even manually by adding the paths of the application / module but that the debug references work within that local module without the symlinks losing the references of the root project?

[int19h]

You should be able to point your PYTHONPATH at the directory where your module is located, and it should be getting picked up. From the debugger's perspective, it really doesn't care whether the code is in the workspace or not - it just shows you the files that Python is actually running.

However, I'm still a bit confused about the different scenarios here. Are you trying to debug the version of your module that's installed in site-packages? Your settings file seems to imply that; but if it's installed, you shouldn't need to adjust PYTHONPATH at all, since Python should be able to find it there just like it finds any other package.

OTOH if you're trying to debug the copy of the package in your workspace, then you need to point PYTHONPATH at its location, rather than at site-packages.

I am looking to debug my local module, but it is also installed inside sites-packages, and then symlinks is pointing to sites-packages, but I would like it to point to usrpath / module
And the debugger is seeing usrpath / module but symlink is pointing to sites-packages, I would like you both to point to usrpath / module

@int19h was it clear to you the proposal of the problem that we would like to solve?

[int19h]

Not entirely, sorry! I think the key here is your symlink setup. It might be easier for me to understand if you can transcribe the filesystem tree for your scenario, and point out where the symlinks are coming from and going to on that.

[fabioz]

I think that managing the PYTHONPATH/project references is probably not be up to the debugger.

@int19h @karthiknadig do you want to move this to vscode-python?