We are pleased to announce that the November 2021 release of the Python Extension for Visual Studio Code is now available. You can download the Python extension from the Marketplace, or install it directly from the extension gallery in Visual Studio Code. If you already have the Python extension installed, you can also get the latest update by restarting Visual Studio Code. You can learn more about Python support in Visual Studio Code in the documentation.

Last month we focused on housekeeping GitHub issues and pull requests. We reduced our open issue count by 20% by closing (triaging or fixing) 288 issues! If you’re interested, you can check the full list of improvements in our changelog.

As part of this release, the Microsoft Python Language Server has reached end of life.

The Microsoft Python Language Server has reached end of life

In September, we announced that the Microsoft Python Language Server would be reaching end of life as of the November 2021 release of the Python extension. Since then, we’ve encouraged our remaining legacy language server users to switch to a supported language server – either Pylance (our default and recommended language support) or Jedi.

As of today’s release, all remaining users who have not chosen a new language server have been flipped to the default language support for Python in Visual Studio Code – Pylance. If at any point you want to try a different language server, you can do that by updating your settings.

We again want to thank our Microsoft Python Language Server users for their feedback over the years. You all have helped make Python in Visual Studio Code what it is today!

Other Changes and Enhancements

We have also added small enhancements and fixed issues requested by users that should improve your experience working with Python in Visual Studio Code. Some notable changes include:

• Support environment variable substitution for “python” property in the launch.json file. (#12289)
• Support expectedFailure when running unittest tests using pytest. (#8427)
• Support unittestsub-tests. (#17561)
• Fix for running all tests when using ini. (#17546)
• Fix unresponsive extension issues. (#11924)

We would like to thank all participants of the Grace Hopper Celebration’s Open Source Day who contributed to the Python extension last October:

• Carolinekung2 : Update homebrew instructions to install Python 3. (#17590)
• Quynh Do: Change text when selecting or clearing interpreters in a multiroot folder scenario. (#10737)
• Analía Bannura and Anna Arsentieva: Rename the commands in the Run/Debug button of the editor title. (#17019)
• Thi Le: Improve setting description for enabling A/B tests. (#7793)
• Vidushi Gupta: Reword message for A/B testing in the output channel. (#6352)
• Aliva Das: Use replaceAll for replacing separators. (#15288)
• Vidushi Gupta: Fix for when creating new Integrated Terminal doesn’t take selected workspace into account for activating the environment. (#15522)
•  Nayana Vinod and Jessica Jolly: Python extension now activates on onDebugInitialConfigurations. (#9557)

Last but not least, special thanks to this month’s contributors:

• afikrim: Change drive first before changing directory in windows, to anticipate running file outside working directory with different storage drive. (#14730)
• acash715: If the executeInFileDir setting is enabled, always change to the script directory before running the script, even if the script is in the Workspace folder. (#15181)
• Peter Lithammer: Fix truncated mypy errors by setting –no-pretty. (#16836)

Be sure to download the Python extension for Visual Studio Code now to try out the above improvements. If you run into any problems or have suggestions, please file an issue on the Python VS Code GitHub page.