Explain how to disable autoloading of .env file in Python environment docs

[gmeligio]

The Python environments in VS Code docs say

By default, the Python extension looks for and loads a file named .env in the current workspace folder, then applies those definitions. The file is identified by the default entry "python.envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/.env" in your user settings (see General Python settings). You can change the python.envFile setting at any time to use a different definitions file.

This explains how to change the file path to load but doesn't explain how to disable it. The use case is that sometimes is undesired to load the .env file.

There is a possible solution already that could be documented to guide users on how to disable it if they want. It's to change the default path "${workspaceFolder}/.env" to an unexistent path. This is how I disable it in my case:

// settings.json
"python.envFile": ".disable-loading-env-because-pollutes-shell-session",

An snippet like this could be shown in the relevant webpages and it would be really helpful.

Another small related issue is that there is no link in "Show environment contributions" to Environment variable definitions file . Then, it's hard to connect the "terminal environment contributions" feature with the settings influencing it. This will be solved with #6590.

Affected Webpages

• Environment variable definitions file in: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/environments#_environment-variable-definitions-file
• envFile in table: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/settings-reference#_general-python-settings
• Link "Show environment contributions" to Environment variable definitions file

[ntrogh]

@gmeligio Thanks! Checking with the Python extension team about this.

[ntrogh]

@gmeligio Update from the team: if you want to disable the behavior of automatically using .env file definitions to automatically load the environment, you can set the python.envFile setting to an empty string. Make sure to save the settings file and reload your window afterwards. We'll update the docs accordingly to include this information.

In settings.json:

"python.envFile": ""

As for the other item, the team will update the wiki.

[gmeligio]

Thank you so much, @ntrogh, for looking into this. It looks neat to leave it empty to disable it.

[madfcat]

@gmeligio Update from the team: if you want to disable the behavior of automatically using .env file definitions to automatically load the environment, you can set the python.envFile setting to an empty string. Make sure to save the settings file and reload your window afterwards. We'll update the docs accordingly to include this information.

In settings.json:

"python.envFile": ""
As for the other item, the team will update the wiki.

This gave me a lot of issues with my env vars in Docker compose setup running it from VSCode shell 🤦‍♀️
Thanks for the tip!

[gmeligio]

Affected Webpages

• Environment variable definitions file in: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/environments#_environment-variable-definitions-file
• envFile in table: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/settings-reference#_general-python-settings
• Link "Show environment contributions" to Environment variable definitions file

Hi @ntrogh . Is it possible to update the Affected Webpages with the suggested solution and examples? I think this issue is less accessible to users needing that documentation.

In settings.json:

"python.envFile": ""