Conda is open source package and environment mamanger. Conda can be installed by few different installers:
- Miniconda is a minimal installer provided by Anaconda (company)
- Anaconda is a full feature installer which comes with a suite of packages, GUI, etc.
- Miniforge is a minimal installer supported by community
If you prefer minimal environments and install only those packages you need - consider using Miniconda or Miniforge. Such projects as PyTorch use Miniforge in their ci.
To install on Linux download and run one of the Conda installers. For Miniforge:
wget https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh
chmod a+x Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh
./Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh
By default Conda will be installed to $HOME/miniforge3.
You will need to agree to license agreement. You also will be asked to update your shell profile (~/.bashrc) to have Conda in your environment. Note that by doing so will activate base conda environment and you will start using application and libraries from it instead of system ones if both versions are installed. This specifically concerns pip and python even in minimal Conda setup. After logging into a new shell you will enter base Conda environment, so packages installed with pip will get installed into this environment instead of ~/.local as would happen using system installation of pip.
Base Conda environment can be activated/deactivated same as any other Conda environment you will further create. Use name base:
- To deactivate base environment:
conda deactivate
- To activate base environment:
conda activate base
To create environment:
conda create -y -n my-environment
To activate:
conda activate my-environment
To deactivate active environment:
conda deactivate
To uninstall all package in the environment and destroy the environment:
conda remove -n my-environment --all
Behavior of pip depends on which version of pip is being used. When Conda environment is activated you get PATH configured to pick application installed in the environment. Thus, if pip was was not installed in the environment, then system version will be used. In such a case packages installed by pip will be installed into ~/.local - default location for system installation of pip. To make sure that pip installs packages into activated Conda environment, install pip with Conda within this environment, i.e.:
conda activate my-environment
conda install pip
Note that base Conda environment comes pre-configured with Conda installation and contains few applications such as python and pip. So, packages installed with pip with activated base environment will be installed into Conda base environment