Packaging: Use pip list --format=json for better parsing - #1543
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Eduardo Villalpando Mello (edvilme) merged 4 commits intoMay 27, 2026
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According to [the docs](https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/cli/pip_list/#cmdoption-format), pip list supports a JSON format for output, which is better suited for computer parsing without having to worry about rendering edge cases or building custom parsing logic.
Eduardo Villalpando Mello (edvilme)
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Eleanor Boyd (eleanorjboyd)
May 27, 2026 16:32
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Eduardo Villalpando Mello (edvilme)
May 27, 2026 16:42
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Pull request overview
This PR updates the built-in package refresh flow to use pip list --format=json and switches parsing from custom text parsing to JSON parsing, aiming for more reliable machine-readable output.
Changes:
- Update package listing commands to request JSON output (
--format=json) and parse it via a new JSON parser. - Replace the previous text-based pip list parser with
parsePipListJson()(JSON-based). - Update and expand unit tests to cover JSON parsing plus a couple of edge cases.
Reviewed changes
Copilot reviewed 6 out of 6 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.
Show a summary per file
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| src/managers/builtin/utils.ts | Switches package refresh to pip list --format=json and uses the JSON parser (also adds uv args for JSON). |
| src/managers/builtin/pipListUtils.ts | Replaces text parsing with JSON parsing (parsePipListJson). |
| src/test/managers/builtin/pipListUtils.unit.test.ts | Updates unit tests to validate JSON parsing and adds edge-case tests. |
| src/test/managers/builtin/piplist1.actual.txt | Removes legacy text output fixture. |
| src/test/managers/builtin/piplist2.actual.txt | Removes legacy text output fixture. |
| src/test/managers/builtin/piplist3.actual.txt | Removes legacy text output fixture. |
Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)
src/managers/builtin/utils.ts:208
runPython()currently concatenates stdout + stderr into the returned string (see helpers.ts), butpip list --format=jsonneeds the returned data to be valid JSON. Any pip notices/warnings written to stderr (common on success) will corrupt the JSON and makeparsePipListJson()return[], silently hiding packages. Consider changing this call to use a helper that returns stdout only (while still logging stderr), or adjustrunPython()to optionally not append stderr for JSON-producing commands.
try {
return await runPython(
environment.execInfo.run.executable,
['-m', 'pip', 'list', '--format=json'],
undefined,
log,
undefined,
PIP_LIST_TIMEOUT_MS,
);
Co-authored-by: Copilot Autofix powered by AI <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Eleanor Boyd (eleanorjboyd)
approved these changes
May 27, 2026
roblourens
approved these changes
May 27, 2026
Eduardo Villalpando Mello (edvilme)
merged commit May 27, 2026
4a0d852
into
main
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Eduardo Villalpando Mello (edvilme)
deleted the
vscode-python-environments-pip-list-json
branch
May 27, 2026 23:40
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According to the docs, pip list supports a JSON format for output, which is better suited for computer parsing without having to worry about rendering edge cases or building custom parsing logic.