[bug] Inspect fails to run in the vs code python 3 devcontainer

[domdomegg]

When starting up, Inspect sets up a folder to help store temporary files. It uses the https://github.com/tox-dev/platformdirs library (specifically the user_runtime_path function) to find an appropriate place to store these files.

On Linux systems without $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR set, this returns a path in /run/user. Unfortunately in VS Code dev containers, there is no /run/user folder in the default Python container.

Upstream bug: tox-dev/platformdirs#315

Proposed next steps

• Wait to see if the upstream bug is resolved in a reasonable time. It looks like it's already got some traction so I think this should be fixed fine. If it isn't, then we could explore patching this on the Inspect end of things.
• In the mean time, suggest the workaround of setting the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR environment variable manually to a folder with read/write permissions.

[jjallaire-aisi]

Another thing we could do is change to user_state_dir() ? (which defaults to ~/.local/state). Our use of this is actually much more in the category of "state" than what is classically associated w/ the runtime dir. If you could confirm that this resolves the issue for you I'll make that change

[domdomegg]

Apologies for the delay responding! Yes, either the user_state_dir() or user_data_dir() appear to work fine 👍