Conda Package and Environment Manager

We use Conda software packages, dependencies, and environments. conda was developed as part of the excellent Anaconda data science toolkit, but we have found that using conda and explicitly managing software environments is more robust over time than using Anaconda.

TODO: Write an intro to conda

Slides notebook from May 2023 group discussion of Python packages and environments:

Installing Miniforge

Miniforge is a minimal installer for Conda specific to conda-forge. It installs the conda package and environment manager tool, a recent version of Python, the packages that conda depends on, and a small number of other packages that are essential for creating and managing software environments.

The installers for Miniforge are linked on the Miniforge page. You can download them from there, and that is what you should do if you are working on Windows. But for Linux and MacOS you’ll be working with conda on the command-line in terminals sessions, so you might as well get started that way by using wget to download the installer script into your home directory.

On Linux use:

$ wget https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh

On older MacOS systems use:

$ wget https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-MacOSX-x86_64.sh

On the new M1/2 chips MacOS systems use:

$ wget https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-MacOSX-arm64.sh

The installation instructions are in the “Unix-like platforms” section of the README of https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge. In short:

  1. Run the installer script via bash:

    On Linux use:

    $ bash Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh
    

    On MacOS use:

    $ bash Miniforge3-MacOSX-x86_64.sh
    

    Follow the prompts on the screen. Accept the defaults offered for all of the settings

  2. To make the changes take effect, close and then re-open your terminal window.

  3. Test your installation. In your terminal window, run the command conda list. A list of installed packages appears if it has been installed correctly; it looks something like:

    # packages in environment at /home/dlatorne/miniconda3:
    #
    # Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
    _libgcc_mutex             0.1                 conda_forge    conda-forge
    _openmp_mutex             4.5                       1_gnu    conda-forge
    brotlipy                  0.7.0           py37h6b43d8f_1003    conda-forge
    bzip2                     1.0.8                h7f98852_4    conda-forge
    c-ares                    1.18.1               h7f98852_0    conda-forge
    ca-certificates           2021.10.8            ha878542_0    conda-forge
    certifi                   2021.10.8        py37h9c2f6ca_1    conda-forge
    cffi                      1.14.6                 0_pypy37    conda-forge
    charset-normalizer        2.0.8              pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
    colorama                  0.4.4              pyh9f0ad1d_0    conda-forge
    conda                     4.10.3           py37h9c2f6ca_4    conda-forge
    conda-package-handling    1.7.3            py37h6b43d8f_1    conda-forge
    cryptography              36.0.0           py37h5c3f282_0    conda-forge
    expat                     2.4.1                h9c3ff4c_0    conda-forge
    gdbm                      1.18                 h0a1914f_2    conda-forge
    icu                       69.1                 h9c3ff4c_0    conda-forge
    idna                      3.1                pyhd3deb0d_0    conda-forge
    krb5                      1.19.2               hcc1bbae_3    conda-forge
    libarchive                3.5.2                hccf745f_1    conda-forge
    libcurl                   7.80.0               h2574ce0_0    conda-forge
    libedit                   3.1.20191231         he28a2e2_2    conda-forge
    libev                     4.33                 h516909a_1    conda-forge
    libffi                    3.4.2                h7f98852_5    conda-forge
    libgcc-ng                 11.2.0              h1d223b6_11    conda-forge
    libgomp                   11.2.0              h1d223b6_11    conda-forge
    libiconv                  1.16                 h516909a_0    conda-forge
    libmamba                  0.19.0               h3985d26_0    conda-forge
    libmambapy                0.19.0           py37h9bd18e5_0    conda-forge
    libnghttp2                1.43.0               h812cca2_1    conda-forge
    libsolv                   0.7.19               h780b84a_5    conda-forge
    libssh2                   1.10.0               ha56f1ee_2    conda-forge
    libstdcxx-ng              11.2.0              he4da1e4_11    conda-forge
    libxml2                   2.9.12               h885dcf4_1    conda-forge
    libzlib                   1.2.11            h36c2ea0_1013    conda-forge
    lz4-c                     1.9.3                h9c3ff4c_1    conda-forge
    lzo                       2.10              h516909a_1000    conda-forge
    mamba                     0.19.0           py37h47bf687_0    conda-forge
    ncurses                   6.2                  h58526e2_4    conda-forge
    openssl                   1.1.1l               h7f98852_0    conda-forge
    pip                       21.3.1             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
    pybind11-abi              4                    hd8ed1ab_3    conda-forge
    pycosat                   0.6.3           py37h6b43d8f_1009    conda-forge
    pyopenssl                 21.0.0             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
    pypy3.7                   7.3.7                hbc09475_3    conda-forge
    pysocks                   1.7.1            py37h9c2f6ca_4    conda-forge
    python                    3.7.12                0_73_pypy    conda-forge
    python_abi                3.7               2_pypy37_pp73    conda-forge
    readline                  8.1                  h46c0cb4_0    conda-forge
    reproc                    14.2.3               h7f98852_0    conda-forge
    reproc-cpp                14.2.3               h9c3ff4c_0    conda-forge
    requests                  2.26.0             pyhd8ed1ab_1    conda-forge
    ruamel_yaml               0.15.80         py37h6b43d8f_1006    conda-forge
    setuptools                59.4.0           py37h9c2f6ca_0    conda-forge
    six                       1.16.0             pyh6c4a22f_0    conda-forge
    sqlite                    3.37.0               h9cd32fc_0    conda-forge
    tk                        8.6.11               h27826a3_1    conda-forge
    tqdm                      4.62.3             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
    urllib3                   1.26.7             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
    wheel                     0.37.0             pyhd8ed1ab_1    conda-forge
    xz                        5.2.5                h516909a_1    conda-forge
    yaml                      0.2.5                h516909a_0    conda-forge
    yaml-cpp                  0.6.3                he1b5a44_4    conda-forge
    zlib                      1.2.11            h36c2ea0_1013    conda-forge
    zstd                      1.5.0                ha95c52a_0    conda-forge
    

conda Configuration

conda uses configuration settings in your $HOME/.condarc file to supplement its default configuration. You need to set up this configuration on each machine that you use conda on; i.e. on your laptop, and on the Waterhole workstation that you use (which will cover all of the Waterhole/Ocean machines).

The conda config command is how you interact with the $HOME/.condarc file. Start by telling conda where you want to store your environments:

$ conda config --prepend envs_dirs $HOME/conda_envs/
$ mkdir $HOME/conda_envs/

The first of those lines tells conda that you want to put your environments in a directory called $HOME/conda_envs/. The second line creates that directory. Storing environment directory trees outside of the $HOME/miniforge3/ directory created by the installer means that if you need to re-install Miniforge you can do so without destroying all of your environments.

If you want to see all of the conda configuration settings (both the defaults, and the supplements from your $HOME/.condarc file, you can use:

$ conda config --show

There are many, many things that you can configure in conda. If you want to see all of the gory details, please see the conda config docs.