Install Anaconda Python

In recent years, a tool has become popular not only as a base for the data analytics ecosystem («data science» as some also call it) but also generally for Python development (scientific, web, or general purpose). This tool is Anaconda, which not only provides us with a cross-platform package distribution system, a main repository with broad cross-platform support (default or anaconda channel) but also an environment manager to allow isolating our dependencies, facilitating reproducibility and avoiding conflicts.

Get installer

Our first step is to obtain the Anaconda Python installer according to our operating system, installation mode, and storage space or bandwidth limitation. Although Anaconda still has installers for Python 2.7, I do not recommend their use but rather the versions associated with Python 3.X (Python 2 lost support on December 31, 2019).

If we have storage space or bandwidth limitations, we can use the installer for miniconda, which corresponds to an installer of around 60 MB on the 3 operating systems. This installer gives us greater control over the installed packages, and only includes by default what is necessary for the Python interpreter and the Conda manager.

If we want a collection of packages ready to use, we will go to the Anaconda Python installer (we select Download Anaconda). Now we go to the installers section (Anaconda Installers) and we will choose the one according to our need:

  • 32 and 64-bit graphical installer for Windows.

  • Command-line installer for Windows (64-bit).

  • Graphical and command-line installer for Mac (64-bit).

This download is around 500 MB for all cases.

Command line installation

Command-line installation applies in the same way for both Mac and Linux, both using an installer based on bash code (regardless of whether it is Anaconda or Miniconda).

For this case we will rely on silent installation [cmd-en] to avoid interactive questions and thus not worry during the installation. We invoke the installer with Bash as follows (make sure to use the full and correct path of the sh installer you will use).

bash Anaconda3-2020.02-Linux-x86_64.sh -b -p $HOME/anaconda
echo ". $HOME/anaconda/etc/profile.d/conda.sh" >> $HOME/.bashrc
source $HOME/.bashrc

In the Bash invocation, the -b argument implies the acceptance of licenses and with -p we indicate the path for the Anaconda installation (you can change it to your desire).

The second and third lines are specific if you use a Bash console. This allows the Conda manager to be recognized by the console when a new session is started and the last line applies it for the current session.

Although it is not my preference and can also generate potential conflicts, if you want the Anaconda Python environment to be activated by default you can add the line conda activate to the .bashrc.

The version of Anaconda Navigator included in 2020.02 on Linux has a bug, so if when executing it you see the message UnboundLocalError: local variable 'DISTRO_NAME' referenced before assignment it will be enough to update the package [navigator-en].

conda update anaconda-navigator

Graphical installation

Installation on Windows with the graphical installer [gui-en] is simple. The default options are exactly the recommended ones, so it is only necessary to click «Next» every time.

It is strongly recommended to use the installation with the default options, to avoid future conflicts. That is, install «Just Me» so as not to require administrator permissions, do not add to the PATH (to avoid conflicts with programs that make use of Python or other packages included in Anaconda), and register Anaconda Python as the default Python (so it will be recognized by code editors that detect Anaconda).

For the graphical installation on Mac you can also follow the default options.

Verify installation

Validating the list of included packages is enough to know that Anaconda works properly. We open the Bash console (Linux or Mac) or Anaconda Prompt (Windows, or opening Anaconda Navigator is enough), and we execute conda list. If we observe the list of packages, it works.

References

This article was originally published in Spanish on 2020-06-29.