Hey @seembha, thanks for reporting. What's really missing in Spyder is using Pixi to activate kernels in our IPython console. We'll try to do that in 6.0.5, to be released in a couple of months. In the meantime, I'm afraid there's nothing to do about it, sorry.

@wolfv, what's the equivalent of conda run --prefix <env-name> --no-capture-output in Pixi?

Hey @ccordoba12 The equivalent to

• conda run --prefix <env-name> --no-capture-output is
• pixi run --manifest-path </path/to/manifest>

pixi run doesn't capture stdout/stderr so no flag is needed for that.

Thanks for chiming in @Hofer-Julian!

And how can we get the path to the manifest file from a Python executable one in an env created by Pixi? Or in other words, what's is the folder structure of Pixi envs created for a project?

And how can we get the path to the manifest file from a Python executable one in an env created by Pixi? Or in other words, what's is the folder structure of Pixi envs created for a project?

I don't fully understand the first question but the folder structure is like this:

.pixi
├── envs
│   ├── default
│   ├── docs
│   └── lint
└── .gitignore

"default" is always there, but users can create additional environments. The folder structure of the environment itself is the same as with conda, mamba, ...

I don't fully understand the first question

Sorry, I just wanted to know how many parents up from the env's Python executable (which is the path we know in Spyder) the manifest file is located.

The folder structure of the environment itself is the same as with conda, mamba, ...

Thanks! That's also another valuable piece of info.

@dalthviz, please take a look at this one after finishing #23869.

Checking this I think some changes to spyder-kernels would be required:

• Add utility functions (probably over https://github.com/spyder-ide/spyder-kernels/blob/master/spyder_kernels/utils/pythonenv.py):
  • Add a utility function to get the info required to run the kernel like the environment name and the path to the manifest file.
  • Add a utility function to detect that a python executable belongs to an env created with pixi.
• Change the get_pythonenv_info comm handler to be able to distinguish between conda and pixi (https://github.com/spyder-ide/spyder-kernels/blob/9c0f9f257f2938f5e65277981d657d5eb42c67c7/spyder_kernels/console/kernel.py#L816-L843).

And inside Spyder, as a minimum:

• Add logic to find pixi executable. So something like find_conda but for pixi (

  spyder/spyder/utils/conda.py

  Lines 76 to 103 in fe71df9

  	def find_conda(pyexec=None):
  	"""
  	Find conda executable.
  	`pyexec` is a python executable, the relative location from which to
  	attempt to locate a conda executable.
  	"""
  	conda = None
  	# First try Spyder's conda executable
  	if is_conda_based_app():
  	root = osp.dirname(os.environ['CONDA_EXE'])
  	conda = osp.join(root, 'mamba.exe' if WINDOWS else 'mamba')
  	# Next try the environment variables
  	if conda is None:
  	conda = os.environ.get('CONDA_EXE') or os.environ.get('MAMBA_EXE')
  	# Next try searching for the executable
  	if conda is None:
  	conda_exec = 'conda.bat' if WINDOWS else 'conda'
  	extra_paths = [
  	osp.join(get_conda_root_prefix(_pyexec), 'condabin')
  	for _pyexec in [sys.executable, pyexec]
  	]
  	conda = find_program(conda_exec, extra_paths)
  	return conda

  )
• Add handling in the IPython statusbar for envs created with pixi (

  spyder/spyder/plugins/ipythonconsole/widgets/status.py

  Lines 206 to 237 in fe71df9

  	def update_status(self, env_info: dict):
  	"""Update env info."""
  	if (
  	# There's no need to emit this signal for remote consoles because
  	# other plugins can only react to local interpreter changes.
  	not self.current_shellwidget.is_remote()
  	and env_info != self._current_env_info
  	):
  	new_interpreter = env_info["path"]
  	logger.debug(f"Console interpreter changed to {new_interpreter}")
  	self.sig_interpreter_changed.emit(new_interpreter)
  	self._current_env_info = env_info
  	if env_info["env_type"] == PythonEnvType.Conda:
  	env_type = "Conda"
  	elif env_info["env_type"] == PythonEnvType.PyEnv:
  	env_type = "Pyenv"
  	else:
  	env_type = _("Custom")
  	# The format to display is:
  	# env_type: env_name (Python python_version)
  	text = (
  	env_type
  	+ ": "
  	+ env_info["name"]
  	+ " (Python "
  	+ env_info["python_version"]
  	+ ")"
  	)
  	self.set_value(text)

  )
• Add logic to use pixi run for the kernel command (

  spyder/spyder/plugins/ipythonconsole/utils/kernelspec.py

  Lines 122 to 182 in fe71df9

  	# Command used to start kernels
  	kernel_cmd = []
  	if is_conda_env(pyexec=pyexec):
  	# If executable is a conda environment, use "run" subcommand to
  	# activate it and run spyder-kernels.
  	conda_exe = find_conda()
  	if not conda_exe:
  	# Raise error since we were unable to determine the path to
  	# the conda executable (e.g when Anaconda/Miniconda was
  	# installed in a non-standard location).
  	# See spyder-ide/spyder#23595
  	raise SpyderKernelError(
  	_(
  	"Spyder couldn't find conda or mamba in your system "
  	"to activate the kernel's environment. Please add the "
  	"directory where the conda or mamba executable is "
  	"located to your PATH environment variable for it to "
  	"be detected."
  	)
  	)
  	conda_exe_version = conda_version(conda_executable=conda_exe)
  	kernel_cmd.extend([
  	conda_exe,
  	'run',
  	'--prefix',
  	get_conda_env_path(pyexec)
  	])
  	# We need to use this flag to prevent conda_exe from capturing the
  	# kernel process stdout/stderr streams. That way we are able to
  	# show them in Spyder.
  	if conda_exe.endswith(('micromamba', 'micromamba.exe')):
  	kernel_cmd.extend(['--attach', '""'])
  	elif conda_exe_version >= parse("4.9"):
  	# Note: We use --no-capture-output instead of --live-stream
  	# here because it works for older Conda versions (conda>=4.9).
  	kernel_cmd.append('--no-capture-output')
  	else:
  	# Raise error since an unsupported conda version is being used
  	# (conda<4.9).
  	# See spyder-ide/spyder#22554
  	raise SpyderKernelError(
  	_(
  	"The detected version of Conda is too old and not "
  	"supported by Spyder. The minimum supported version is "
  	"4.9 and currently you have {conda_version}.<br><br>."
  	"<b>Note</b>: You need to restart Spyder after "
  	"updating Conda for the change to take effect."
  	).format(conda_version=conda_exe_version)
  	)
  	kernel_cmd.extend([
  	pyexec,
  	# This is necessary to avoid a spurious message on Windows.
  	# Fixes spyder-ide/spyder#20800.
  	'-Xfrozen_modules=off',
  	'-m', 'spyder_kernels.console',
  	'-f', '{connection_file}'
  	])

  )

  • I think the initial part of the command to start kernels with pixi then would look something like:

    <pixi_executable> run --environment <env name> --manifest-path <path_to_manifest>
    

Other things that could be related with pixi support are detecting/listing pixi created envs and add from the IPython console menu the possibility to launch a console using a pixi created env Python interpreter but maybe that is out of the scope of this issue 🤔

Anyhow, after these changes are done I think we will need to enforce an update of spyder-kernels right @ccordoba12 ? If that is the case, maybe this issue should be part of the 6.1.0 milestone ? Or you were thinking on a different implementation path to fix this issue?

As a side note, trying to understand why the initial traceback appeared, I did some testing with pixi and interestingly the command to run the kernel worked and the console launched without problems for me whe choosing a Python interpreter from a pixi created env. In fact if I do conda activate --prefix <path to prefix created env> I'm able to activate the env. Following this, my guess is that since envs created with pixi use conda packages, Spyder detects envs created with pixi as conda envs. This detection then causes an error if you don't have conda installed. Thinking about that, with the changes over #23869 you would now see a message indicating that conda was not found and that you need to add it to your path which maybe could be confusing?🤔

Anyhow, after these changes are done I think we will need to enforce an update of spyder-kernels right @ccordoba12 ? If that is the case, maybe this issue should be part of the 6.1.0 milestone ? Or you were thinking on a different implementation path to fix this issue?

I thought only step 3 of the ones you listed above was necessary for this. But if changes are necessary to get_pythonenv_info, then you're right, this needs to wait for 6.1.0

Thinking about that, with the changes over #23869 you would now see a message indicating that conda was not found and that you need to add it to your path which maybe could be confusing?🤔

Yeah, a little bit. We could improve that by detecting if .pixi is in the interpreter path and showing a different message in that case. Something like: Spyder doesn't support Pixi environments at the time, but it will in version 6.1.0.

Would you like to submit a PR for that?