Report an empty version for conda environments without Python

[Han (LH-and-FPGA)]

Summary

A conda environment that has no Python interpreter makes all conda environments
disappear from the interpreter picker and the Jupyter kernel picker.

This happens with a prefix created as a toolchain rather than a Python environment,
e.g. conda create -n cuda cuda-toolkit. Reproduced on Linux with 5 conda
environments, one of them interpreter-less; only base survived.

Likely the same root cause as #1584 — that report's environment list shows a third
entry rendered as (no-python), and it was closed as info-needed.

Root cause

getCondaWithoutPython describes an interpreter-less environment with a placeholder
in a field that consumers parse:

// src/managers/conda/condaUtils.ts
version: 'no-python',

version is declared readonly version: string in src/api.ts, so a sentinel
compiles fine — but ms-python.python parses it as a PEP 440 version:

// ms-python.python 2026.7.2026080801, out/client/extension.js
function f(e){ const t = l.parseBasicVersionInfo(`ignored-${e}`);
  if(!t){ if("" === e) return [v(), ""];        // "unknown" — degrades gracefully
          throw Error(`invalid version ${e}`) } }  // 'no-python' lands here

The empty string is the one unparseable value it accepts. Any other placeholder
throws.

Why one bad environment takes down the rest. This repository is careful —
condaUtils.ts wraps each environment in its own try/catch during conversion. But
the sentinel is valid data, so it passes that guard and is published in the batch
fired from condaEnvManager.ts. The consumer has no per-item guard:

onDidChangeEnvironments(e){ e.forEach(e => { … this.addEnv(e.environment) }) }

Array.forEach cannot resume after a throw, so every environment ordered after the
offending one is silently dropped. Observed stack:

at f                              ← throw Error(`invalid version no-python`)
at _                              ← convert PythonEnvironmentInfo
at S.addEnv
at Array.forEach (<anonymous>)    ← no try/catch
at S.onDidChangeEnvironments
at T.fire

The fix

1. Don't publish a sentinel as a version (condaUtils.ts, condaEnvManager.ts)

version: 'no-python' → version: ''. This is already how the rest of the repository
represents an unknown version:

• src/features/interpreterSelection.ts — version: resolved.version ?? ''
• src/common/inlineScript/interpreter.ts — env.version.length === 0 means not usable

Conda was the only one of the eight managers surfacing a sentinel. The (no-python)
marker stays in displayName / shortDisplayName, which are displayed but never
parsed, so the UI is unchanged. The two internal version === 'no-python' checks now
go through an exported isCondaEnvWithoutPython predicate.

This also fixes a smaller bug: pickPythonVersion builds its list with
.map(e => e.version).filter(Boolean), and 'no-python' is truthy, so "Select the
version of Python to install" offered no-python as a choice.

2. Make sortEnvironments a total order (managers/common/utils.ts)

return a.version ? 1 : -1;

Comparing a real version against an unparseable non-empty one returns 1 in both
directions, which breaks the antisymmetry Array.prototype.sort requires, so the
result is an implementation-defined permutation. Now: valid versions compare
descending, a known version sorts before an unknown one, and two unknowns fall back to
a string comparison.

getLatest had a related gap — seeded with candidates[0], both operands had to parse
for the seed to ever be replaced, so an unparseable seed always won.

Verification

Measured against the real @renovatebot/pep440, on the reported environment set
(base 3.13.13, an interpreter-less prefix, git 3.14.6, lh 3.14.7, vllm 3.14.6):

	before	after
antisymmetry violations over a 9-version vocabulary	36	0
distinct sort results over 120 input permutations	16	1
getLatest result	the interpreter-less env	lh
environments published before the consumer throws	base only	all 5

Tests

• npm run unittest: 1582 passing, 0 failing (1577 before this change).
• New utils.sortEnvironments.unit.test.ts — descending order, unknown versions last,
  and stability across all input permutations.
• New condaUtils.noPythonEnv.unit.test.ts — an interpreter-less prefix is still
  discovered, reports version: '', and keeps its (no-python) display name.
• Three of the four new tests fail on main and pass with this change; the fourth is a
  baseline that passes on both.
• Updated the three existing fixtures that constructed environments with 'no-python'.

src/api.ts is unchanged, so no API version bump or changelog entry is needed.

[Han (LH-and-FPGA)]

@microsoft-github-policy-service agree