Anaconda Python

Anaconda is a pre-packaged Python distribution for scientific users. Unlike other Python distributions, this means that most additional functionality that we need to do numerical computing, statistics, plotting and the like come already installed - which saves us a lot of time.

Installing Miniforge Python for Mac

Install using Homebrew. In your terminal type the following and press return:

brew install --cask miniforge

During the installation process you might be the following output asking you to review the license agreement:

Welcome to Anaconda3

In order to continue the installation process, please review the license
agreement.
Please, press ENTER to continue
>>>
...
Do you approve the license terms? [yes|no]

Press Return until you reach the end, and type 'yes'.

Now proceed to verify your install

Installing Miniforge Python for Linux and Windows

First, we need to download the Anaconda Bash Script (a file that will install things for us). Enter the following into the terminal:

curl -L -O "https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-$(uname)-$(uname -m).sh"

Run the Anaconda Script by entering the following into the terminal:

bash Miniforge3-$(uname)-$(uname -m).sh

As this script runs through, review and accept the license agreement. To do this press Return until you reach the end, and type 'yes'.

After you agree to the license, you will be prompted to choose the location of the installation:

Miniforge3 will now be installed into this location:
/home/lachlan/miniforge3

  - Press ENTER to confirm the location
  - Press CTRL-C to abort the installation
  - Or specify a different location below

[/home/lachlan/miniforge3] >>>

Use the default.

The installation will continue - it does take some time, so be patient.

Once the installation is complete, you will get the following output, which asks a question of us:

...
Preparing transaction: done
Executing transaction: done
installation finished.
Do you wish the installer to initialize Miniforge3
by running conda init? [yes|no]

Type 'yes'.

Now we need to refresh our terminal settings, so type the following and press return:

source ~/.bashrc

Now proceed to verify your install.

Verifying Your Installation

In order to activate Miniforge's environment, we have to start with

conda activate

Then, to verify that the correct version of Python has been installed, usually we would follow the programName --version logic from before.

python --version

which yields:

Python 3.9.13

which tells us that Python is installed. But, because most operating systems these days have some additional version of Python installed, this doesn't guarantee that the Miniforge version is available for us to use from the terminal.

To check, initiate Python by entering the following into a terminal and pressing Return:

python

You should now see something like:

Python 3.9.13 | packaged by conda-forge | (main, May 27 2022, 16:56:21)
[GCC 10.3.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

where the operating system name should be different for Mac users.

Now we see that the terminal is using the Miniforge (conda-forge) version as we wanted. To quit the Python session we just opened, type the following at the >>>:

>>> quit()

and you will return to your terminal. This was successful if you now see a $ rather than the >>>.

If you want to deactivate the Miniforge environment (e.g. so that you can use the system's Python interpreter), you simply have to type

conda deactivate