Tips for installing NEST with conda

This page provides a series of recommendations for installing NEST with conda.

Create a dedicated environment for NEST

Create a dedicated environment for NEST, which should ensure there are no conflicts with previously installed packages.

Install all programs

Install all programs you’ll need, (such as ipython or jupyter-lab) in the environment (<envname>) at the same time, by appending them to the conda create --name ENVNAME -c conda-forge command.

Installing packages later may override previously installed dependencies and potentially break packages! See managing environments in the Conda documentation for more information.

Keep your base environment empty

Your base environment should be as empty as possible in order to avoid conflicts with other environments. Always install packages only in the new environments (don’t worry about duplicates, conda will link the packages if they are used in multiple environments, and not produce disk eating copies).

Get a good overview

Obtain a good overview of which packages are installed where. You can use conda env export -n base and conda env export -n yournestenv (replacing the yournestenv name with whatever you chose). Make sure each environment contains all dependencies. One way to make this obvious would be to reduce conda stack to 0 (conda documentation here), and/or to a certain degree by not auto-activating the base environment (conda documentation here). Then packages from base do not ‘leak’ into your new environments.

Note

Packages from your system will usually also be available in your conda environment and may cause similar conflicts.