Why doesn't Visual Studio Code recognize my WSL bash python?

Question

I am running Visual Studio Code on Windows 10 with WSL bash as its terminal:

"terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:/Windows/sysnative/bash.exe"

In WSL bash I have both python (v2.7) and python3 (v3.6) installed.

I have installed the Python extension for VS Code. Unfortunately VS Code fails to recognize either version of Python in WSL bash.

For example when I try to discover tests, I get the following error in the Python Test Log output window:

Test Discovery failed:

Error: spawn python ENOENT

How can I configure VS Code to work with Python form WSL bash?

Note: I'm pretty sure I need to configure a path to Python in the "python.pythonPath" key in VS Code's user settings file. I am unsure of which path to put as the value though.

Quibble re: "bash as its terminal" -- bash isn't a terminal, it's a shell. A terminal does the work of displaying a window, and transmits textual data to or from programs whose output is displayed in that window. Bash itself doesn't know anything about windowing systems, graphics, &c; it's not a terminal at all, purely a shell. — Charles Duffy
– Charles Duffy, Commented Jan 30, 2018 at 20:31
Gotcha. UNIX terminology is a bit different, so this question crosses worlds a bit -- probably for the better that there wasn't need to say either "directory" or "folder" to avoid any holy wars on that topic from drifting in either. :) — Charles Duffy
– Charles Duffy, Commented Jan 30, 2018 at 20:43

Brett Cannon · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-25 17:10:50Z

11

Support for WSL is done through the "WSL - Remote" extension. There is a WSL blog post which covers how to get started.

edited Jul 25, 2019 at 17:10

answered Jan 30, 2018 at 20:26

Brett Cannon

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3 Comments

Jack Strosahl Over a year ago

It seems that this is supported now? So a better answer would be how to do this now.

Brett Cannon Over a year ago

@JackStrosahl thanks for noticing that the answer was outdated! I've now updated it.

Jack Strosahl Over a year ago

Excellent, thank you. I was asking because I was trying to do it. Essentially all I was missing was that extension.

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