Activate Anaconda

Anaconda is an open-source and free package and environment management system which allows you to install eg. python or R packages into separate virtual environments. Miniconda is a lightweight version.

Use the pre-installed Anaconda

Anaconda with a base package is installed on the server.

Activate and initate the common version by typing the following commands into the terminal:

source /opt/anaconda3/bin/activate
conda init

Prepare for local installation

Next step is to set-up for installing environments locally by doing the following:

# Create directory for conda cache
mkdir -p ~/.conda/pkgs/cache

# Configure conda to use your directories
conda config --add pkgs_dirs ~/.conda/pkgs
conda config --add envs_dirs ~/.conda/envs

Now your new packages will be installed locally in ~/.conda/envs

Create a new environment

To create a new environment, you can use the following command:

conda create -n <env_name> python=<python_version>

Replace <env_name> with the name you want to give to your environment. You can also specify the version of Python you want to use (e.g., python=3.8).

You can then check you environments by typing:

conda info --envs

Activate the environment

To activate the environment, use the following command:

conda activate <env_name>

Replace <env_name> with the name of the environment you created.

Install packages

To install packages in the activated environment, you can use the following command:

conda install <package_name>

Replace <package_name> with the name of the package you want to install. You can also specify multiple packages separated by spaces. For example, to install numpy and pandas, you can use:

conda install numpy pandas

Deactivate the environment

To deactivate the environment, use the following command:

conda deactivate

This will return you to the base environment.

See the Anaconda documentation for more information on how to use Anaconda and manage environments.