Debugpy permission denied to conda env even after chmod 777

[kielpins-nearmap]

Running VSCode debugpy for pytest remotely on an AWS Sagemaker instance. launch.json times out owing to Permission denied error on $CONDA_PREFIX directory. I have manually set chmod -R 777 $CONDA_PREFIX but still get Permission denied.

Note that this has never been a problem before with my setup, it just started today.

Environment data

• debugpy version: 1.8.15
• OS and version: Ubuntu 22.04
• Python version (& distribution if applicable, e.g. Anaconda): conda-forge 3.12.11
• Using VS Code or Visual Studio: VS Code

Actual behavior

Upon attempting to launch test debugging from the Testing pane:

cd /home/sagemaker-user/user-default-efs/$CODE_DIR ; /usr/bin/env $CONDA_PREFIX /home/sagemaker-user/.vscode-server/extensions/ms-python.debugpy-2025.10.0/bundled/libs/debugpy/adapter/../../debugpy/launcher 57595 -- /home/sagemaker-user/.vscode-server/extensions/ms-python.python-2025.10.1/python_files/vscode_pytest/run_pytest_script.py --rootdir=/home/sagemaker-user/user-default-efs/$CODE_DIR --capture=no 
/usr/bin/env: '$CONDA_PREFIX': Permission denied

and a popup with Timed out waiting for launcher to connect which is presumably the consequence of the above error.

Expected behavior

Launch debugpy.

Steps to reproduce:

1. launch.json:

    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Python: Debug Tests",
            "type": "debugpy",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${file}",
            "purpose": ["debug-test"],
            "console": "externalTerminal",
            "justMyCode": false,
            "args": [
                "--cache-clear"
            ],
            }
        }
    ]
}
2. `chmod +R 777 $CONDA_PREFIX`
3. launch any test from `Debug test` icon in `Testing` pane

[kielpins-nearmap]

Bumping as round-robin failed.

[deniswassmann-alephalpha]

i debugged this issue with someone else today. in our case CONDA_PREFIX was mistakenly set to the conda environment's directory instead of its python binary. as a result your shell snippet will attempt to execute a directory, in which case creating a process returns EACCESS ("Permission denied"). filesystem permissions were correct the entire time

we fixed it by following this advice.

[kielpins-nearmap]

Thanks @deniswassmann-alephalpha . I did in fact check the CONDA_PREFIX setting, but it was correct in my case.

In the end I had to delete the entire contents of .vscode-server and reinstall all extensions. Then the problem was resolved. It's a workaround, but not a very pleasant one.

[rchiodo]

Not sure there's anything left to fix here?

[kielpins-nearmap]

Not sure there's anything left to fix here?
@rchiodo
Personally, I wouldn't regard "delete all your VSCode extensions and reinstall" as a fix. It's a very nasty workaround. It would be great if the root cause could be uncovered and solved.

[rchiodo]

Without a reproduction, it's not something we'd be able to fix. If you (or somebody else) could reproduce the problem with logging enabled (change launch.json like so):

"version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Python: Debug Tests",
            "type": "debugpy",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${file}",
            "purpose": ["debug-test"],
            "console": "externalTerminal",
            "justMyCode": false,
            "logToFile": true
            "args": [
                "--cache-clear"
            ],
            }
        }

That might show us where there is a problem using an executable.

[kielpins-nearmap]

@rchiodo
Well, others seem to be experiencing this problem too; similar symptoms are also reported in microsoft/vscode-python-environments#508. Obviously since I had to delete and reinstall entirely (costing me no little pain) I can't reproduce further at present.

[rchiodo]

I'd hazard a guess then that your machine is no longer using the same python-environment extension? Sounds like it's the root cause of this problem. Or maybe Eleanor disabled the python-environment extension in more recent releases. Anyway, sounds like not an issue with debugpy.

[eleanorjboyd]

Hello! I think this is related to an outstanding issue which I have now fixed. It would be extremely helpful if people could try it with their particular setup and see if it works and if not provide updated info on the behavior. To try it out, update your Python extension version to the most recent pre-release version (which is 2025.13.2025082601), reload your window, and try again.

Thank you!