Get started with Conda

Anaconda is a distribution of Python with extra high quality packages, Miniconda is a mini version of Anaconda with base packages. Conda is a package management system and environment management system. It is recommemded to use conda and create an environment for each project, you don’t have to install Python first, just install Anaconda directly.

Conda as a package manager

Get started

Verify conda is installed, check version number

conda --version

Check basic information about conda
```
conda info
```
Search for a package
```
conda search beautifulsoup4
```

Install a package

conda install beautifulsoup4

conda install python=3.7

Update a package

conda update beautifulsoup4

conda update python

Remove a package
```
conda remove beautifulsoup4
```
Update conda to the current version
```
conda update conda
```

Keep Anaconda up to date

conda update anaconda

conda update --all

List installed packages
```
conda list
```

Advanced topics

Install a package from a specific channel

conda install scipy --channel conda-forge

Option -c means --channel

conda install -c anaconda anaconda-navigator

conda install conda-forge::PKGNAME

Update conda itself

Option -n means --name

conda update -n base conda

conda update -n base -c defaults conda

Detailed information about package versions
```
conda search PKGNAME --info
```
Remove unused cached files including unused packages
```
conda clean --all
```
Remove a package from an environment
```
conda uninstall PKGNAME --name ENVNAME
```
Update all packages within an environment
```
conda update --all --name ENVNAME
```
Examine Conda configuration and configuration services
```
conda config --show
conda config --show-sources
```

Got an SSL error…

conda config --set ssl_verify false
conda update requests
conda config --set ssl_verify true

Conda as an environment manager

Get started

Create a virtual environment

conda create --name my_env

conda create --name py37 python=3.7 

Activate an environment
```
conda activate my_env
```
Deactivate current environment
```
conda deactivate
```
Remove an environment
```
conda remove --name my_env
```

Export an environment to a file

conda env export > requirements.txt

conda env export --name my_env > my_env.yml

Create an environment from a file

conda env create --file my_env.yml

Option -f means --file

conda env create -f requirements.txt

List all environments

conda env list

conda info --envs

Advanced topics

Export an environment with exact package versions
```
conda list --explicit > pkgs.txt
```
Option -e means --explicit
```
conda list -e > pkgs.txt
```
Create an environment based on exact package versions
```
conda create --name NEWENV --file pkgs.txt
```

Make an exact copy of an environment

conda create --clone ENVNAME --name NEWENV

Written on November 19, 2019