Python

Conda is a pre-packaged Python distribution. It is mainly used as a package manager that enables simple creation of virtual enviroments for Python. More on this during the course.

We will be installing either "Miniforge" or "Miniconda" for this course. Both can, for now, be regarded as equivalent. Some of you might have heard of "Anaconda". Anaconda is the bigger brother of Miniconda, but contains many packages we don't require.

Installing Miniforge Python for Mac

Open a new terminal and run the command corresponding to your processor:

Apple Silicon Macs

mkdir -p ~/miniconda3
curl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-arm64.sh -o ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh
bash ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh -b -u -p ~/miniconda3
rm -rf ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh

Intel Macs

mkdir -p ~/miniconda3
curl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-x86_64.sh -o ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh
bash ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh -b -u -p ~/miniconda3
rm -rf ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh

Initialization

After installing (either versions of Mac), initialize your newly-installed Miniconda. The following commands initialize for bash and zsh shells:

~/miniconda3/bin/conda init bash
~/miniconda3/bin/conda init zsh

Restart the terminal and then proceed to verify your install

Installing Miniforge Python for Linux

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.

Installing Miniconda on Windows

We are installing Miniconda via winget with the following command:

winget install -e --id Anaconda.Miniconda3 --interactive

Accept all defaults, except for 'Add Miniconda3 to my PATH environment variable' which needs to be checked. Restart the WindowsTerminal.

After restarting the terminal, initialize your newly-installed Miniconda:

conda init

After restarting the WindowsTerminal once more, proceed to verify your install.

Verifying Your Installation

In order to activate Miniforge/Miniconda'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/Miniconda 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/Miniconda 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 file path rather than the >>>.

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

conda deactivate