Install conda without license problems#

Here we present two solutions for installing Conda without Anaconda license problems:

• Miniforge a light version of Conda that use conda-forge as its default package source (channel), which is free to use.
• Micromamba a minimal version of Conda (it is actually mamba, a conda implemenation in C++) that avoid by default any channel under Anaconda license.

For an overview of the different conda distribution see here.

Miniforge#

Download#

Conda is installed by downloading and executing an installer, but which version you need depends on your operating system.

Choose the appropriate installer from the list you can found here:
https://conda-forge.org/download/ or here https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge.
Then copy the link and download the installer on your computer, see example below:

# Download Miniforge installer for 64-bit Linux
curl -L https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh -O

# Download Miniforge installer for 64-bit Linux
wget https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh 

Install#

Now you can execute the installer:

bash Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh

The installer will ask you questions during the installation:

Press
Then press several times until reaching the next question.

• Do you accept the license terms?
  Yes
• Do you accept the installation path or do you want to choose a different one?
  Press
• Do you wish to update your shell profile to automatically initialize conda?
  Yes

Restart your shell so that the settings in ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile can take effect. Or run

source ~/.bashrc 

You can verify that the installation worked by running:

conda --version

You can now get rid of the installer, you don't need it anymore

rm Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh

Configure Channels#

Even if Miniforge only includes the conda-forge channel, which is free to use, it is always good to check the installation.

Check channels#

To verify the channels used by your installation you can type the following command:

conda config --show channels

You should see something like:

Add extra free channels#

You can add any free channel e.g. bioconda as follow:

conda config --add channels bioconda

Sharing environments safely#

For explanation why adding this extra line see here

conda config --add channels nodefaults

Reproducibility#

Is is recommended to set a strict channel priority.
It can dramatically speed up conda operations and also reduce package incompatibility problems.

conda config --set channel_priority strict

Auto activation#

By default conda will be activated to every new terminal you will open (in the base environment). To deactivate this behaviour run:

conda config --set auto_activate_base false

Micromamba#

Micromamba is a fully statically-linked, self-contained, executable. This means that the base environment is completely empty. The configuration for micromamba is slightly different, namely all environments and cache will be created by default under the MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX environment variable. There is also no pre-configured .condarc/.mambarc shipped with micromamba (they are however still read if present).

Download and Install#

Micromamba is installed by downloading and executing an installer:

# Download Micromamba installer 
"${SHELL}" <(curl -L micro.mamba.pm/install.sh)

The installer will ask you questions during the installation:

Press

Press

Press

Press

To take the changes into account restart your shell or run:

# (or ~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, ~/.xonshrc, ~/.config/fish/config.fish, ...)
source ~/.bashrc 

You can verify that the installation worked by running:

micromamba --version

Configure Channels#

Even if Micromamba only includes the conda-forge channel, which is free to use, it is always good to check the installation.

Check channels#

To verify the channels used by your installation you can type the following command:

conda config --show channels

You should see something like:

Add extra free channels#

You can add any free channel e.g. bioconda as follow:

conda config --add channels bioconda

Sharing environments safely#

For explanation why adding this extra line see here

conda config --add channels nodefaults

Reproducibility#

Is is recommended to set a strict channel priority.
It can dramatically speed up conda operations and also reduce package incompatibility problems.

conda config --set channel_priority strict