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2019 - conda made big improvements to speed and space please use conda 4.7

conda update conda
conda update --all
conda clean -a

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Managing different python environments

  • Either download anaconda3/miniconda3 (has both python 2 and 3 available) or use system anaconda (requires some extra configuration to allow working with user home dir rather than system.

  1. Create a conda environment

    • conda create --name <environment-name> python=<version:2.7/3.7>

  2. Activate and install packages e.g:

conda activate <environment-name>
conda install netcdf4
conda install -c conda-forge iris

  1. To create a requirements.txt file if using github (allows github picks up dependencies):

    • conda list -e > requirements.txt # Save all the info about packages to your folder

  2. To export to yml file (so that others can use the same environment)

    • conda env export --no-builds | grep -v "^prefix: " > environment.yml

    NB the grep pipe removes your personal prefix from the file and the no builds option allow for less future failures

    NB conda must be the latest version (bug in the previous version missed pip packages)

  3. Tidy up to save space

conda clean -t # Will remove tarballs
conda clean -p # Will remove packages
conda clean -a # Will do a full clean

  1. if you have multiple environments you may need a reminder of them: conda env list

  2. To save space you can remove and recreate the environment at a later date conda env remove --name myenv

  3. The environment can then be picked up again or shared via:

    • conda env create -f environment.yml

Additional information

  • To update an environment: conda env update --prefix ./env --file environment.yml  --prune

  • To give exact specifications conda list --explicit > spec-file.txt

  • Saving environment variables

cd $CONDA_PREFIX
mkdir -p ./etc/conda/activate.d
mkdir -p ./etc/conda/deactivate.d
touch ./etc/conda/activate.d/env_vars.sh
touch ./etc/conda/deactivate.d/env_vars.sh

in activate.d/env_vars.sh

export MY_KEY='secret-key-value'
export MY_FILE=/path/to/my/file/

in deactivate.d/env_vars.sh

unset MY_KEY
unset MY_FILE

  • NB wildcard versioning: set major and minor and allow wildcard patch number to pick up bug fixes etc

  • can regex replace ([0-9]).([0-9]).([0-9]) with $1.$2.*

  • regex remove builds by =[a-zA-Z0-9_]*$