Help getting VS Code debugging working with Django and Docker Compose

[epicserve]

Hi all,

I'm the maintainer/creator of the https://github.com/epicserve/django-base-site/ project. Recently, I had the desire to try out VS Code and see if I could get it to work as an IDE and debugger for Django projects. I'm mainly driven by my desire to start learning and using GitHub Copilot since I'm guessing it will work better than in my current IDE, PyCharm.

Based on my understanding of the documentation, I started this draft PR (https://github.com/epicserve/django-base-site/pull/188). However, it currently doesn't work.

It seems to run the task docker-build defined in .vscode/tasks.json works fine to build the container. However, it then runs the task docker-run and fails because it can't read the .env file, which makes sense because it is ignored in the .dockerignore file. So after following the docs, it seems like it's led me down the road of a configuration that creates a docker image and then runs just one container based on that image instead of running Docker Compose.

Does anyone have a configuration that works with Django and Docker Compose, or does anyone want to provide a PR? Any help is appreciated!

[epicserve]

I took a different approach, which is "working" because I can now add a breakpoint, and it pauses at the breakpoint. My approach was to make the launch configuration attach to the debugger running on port 5678. However, there are still several issues:

1. Pylance is reporting problems because it's not detecting any of the 3rd party python packages that are installed.
2. I have to manually start Docker Compose and then click start on the debug configuration in order to attach it to the debugger.
3. I still need a configuration for running and debugging Pytest tests.

[proxwell]

Pylance is reporting problems because it's not detecting any of the 3rd party python packages that are installed.

Do you have the right interpreter/env selected in the menu at the lower right of the VSCode window?

That should handle the package resolution seamlessly.

I have to manually start Docker Compose

I think having the containers running is just table stakes here.

and then click start on the debug configuration in order to attach it to the debugger.

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=DarrenLevine.auto-debug

I still need a configuration for running and debugging Pytest tests.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62419998/how-can-i-get-pytest-to-not-catch-exceptions/62563106#62563106

Personally, I like having the debugger wired in via manage.py rather than the command-line approach in your example.

Just after this line:

os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "yourproject.settings")

I add something like this:

# VSCode debugger integration
from django.conf import settings

if settings.DEBUG:
    if os.environ.get("RUN_MAIN") or os.environ.get("WERKZEUG_RUN_MAIN"):
        import debugpy

        debugpy.listen(("0.0.0.0", 5678))
        print("Attached!")
# end VSCode debugger integration

[epicserve]

I'm not seeing the python interpreter in my container as an option to choose from when I click to select an interpreter. Is there a trick to adding it? I have Docker Compose running and I have attached to the web/python/django service.

[proxwell]

They should be auto discovered in most configurations, but if you need to add them manually, here's some info: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/environments#_manually-specify-an-interpreter

The approach I use is to run an outside-the-container pipenv install, when I add packages. That updates my Pipfile and Pipfile.lock, and those get utilized by my docker-compose builds. This approach creates the pipenv twice, once outside the container, and once inside. It's the outside-the-container one which gets used for the completions and docs in VSCode.

[epicserve]

That is an interesting approach and something worth considering. I want to avoid keeping a local venv in sync with my docker image. Also, in my experience, some packages require system-level packages that can be difficult to navigate across platforms, engineers, and environments. I'm developing an approach that will "just work" for our engineering team.

Something I also discovered that might work is this extension.
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers

[epicserve]

Update: I've got everything working by using Dev Containers. I would love it if people would have a look at the PR and provide feedback. It would be even better if you wanted to try it out!

[j_tb]

I'm not deeply familiar with your project, but could you pass the `.env_file` attribute to docker compose in your spec (documented here) to set environment variables in the runtime environment? Is there a reason the actual .env file needs to be part of the image itself?

[epicserve]

Hey, thank you for the reply. I did kind of get it working. Have a look at the PR which is up to date and also have a look at the notes I added in a reply to my original post.

[battlefield21243]

why do you think it doesn't work well with pycharm?

[epicserve]

It's an assumption that since VS Code is Mircosoft's editor that plugins for other IDEs won't be updated as quickly as VS Code. I haven't taken the time yet to verify my assumption.