Setting up a minimalist Python environment from scratch

Miniconda is a minimal conda installer including only Python, conda, and its dependencies. Miniconda allows you to create customized environments by installing additional packages from the thousands of additional packages. You can create separate environments for each project and easily share your environment with others for easy reproducibility. With conda, you can create an environment on your local machine and seamlessly copy it to large shared high-performance computers (HPC).

This article will outline everything you need to know to install and use Miniconda to create and manage custom environments, install packages, and move these environments to remote computers. Miniconda puts you in control and doesn’t install unnecessary packages for your needs, which may come with a full-blown Anaconda installation.

Table of contents

• Installation
• The basics
• Install packages
• Create a custom environment
• Use an environment with JupyterLab
• Move an environment to a new computer
• Fix and clean your environments
• Modify the condarc file
• Final thoughts

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