Unable to select virtual environment not located at root

[jtdavis777]

Environment data

• VS Code version: 1.21.0
• Extension version (available under the Extensions sidebar): 2018.2.1
• OS and version: Windows 10 64 Bit
• Python version: 2.7 and 3.6
• Type of virtual environment used (if applicable): venv
• Relevant/affected Python packages and their versions: N/A

Actual behavior

Selecting python executable to run in the lower left hand corner only displays options for the default installed python libraries and virtual environments found at workspace root.

Expected behavior

Extension should either be able to search within the directory tree for virtual environments contained within folders (for example, I have a venv folder located at .\partner-api\venv), or users should be able to type in a full path to a python executable and have this added to the list.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Add folder to workspace
2. Add virtual environment root folder to created folder
3. Reload VSCode (ref issue New workspace virtual environments are not discovered until VS Code reloads #656)
4. See that new virtual environment has not been added to the list

Logs

Output for Python in the Output panel (View→Output, change the drop-down the upper-right of the Output panel to Python)

none

Output from Console under the Developer Tools panel (toggle Developer Tools on under Help)

none

[DonJayamanne]

We look for environments in a specific set of directories.
For instance we do look for environments in the workspace, but only directly in the current workspace, i.e. not 2-3 levels deep. Doing so, is not practical as we'd end up crawling the entire directory structure (imaging a user opening the root directory in VS Code).

The solution in such an instance is for you to use the setting venvPath as follows:

"python.venvPath": "folder path you'd like the extension to look for environments in"

[DonJayamanne]

Oops, please confirm this works for you.

[jtdavis777]

This works if I put a specific directory in, but not with wild characters.

What worked: ${workspaceFolder}\\partner-api
What I would like to work: ${workspaceFolder}\\*

Thank you for the quick reply and solution :) the above method will work, but if I move to having more than one of these setups, I would like to not have to edit this each time (first world problems, I know)

[brettcannon]

microsoft/vscode-docs#1568 is about documenting python.venvPath better. But as of right now the wildcard directory traversal hasn't seen enough demand to warrant trying to support it (if others come and vote for this then do leave a comment and we will consider re-opening).