How to change default Anaconda python environment
How to change default Anaconda python environment
If you just want to temporarily change to another environment, use
source activate environment-name
ETA: This may be deprecated. I believe the current correct command is:
source conda activate environment-name
(you can create environment-name with conda create)
To change permanently, there is no method except creating a startup script that runs the above code.
Typically its best to just create new environments. However, if you really want to change the Python version in the default environment, you can do so as follows:
First, make sure you have the latest version of conda by running
conda update conda
Then run
conda install python=3.5
This will attempt to update all your packages in your root environment to Python 3 versions. If it is not possible (e.g., because some package is not built for Python 3.5), it will give you an error message indicating which package(s) caused the issue.
If you installed packages with pip, youll have to reinstall them.
Overview
Some people have multiple Anaconda environments with different versions of python for compatibility reasons. In this case, you should have a script that sets your default environment. With this method, you can preserve the versions of python you use in your environments.
The following assumes environment_name is the name of your environment
Mac / Linux:
Edit your bash profile so that the last line is source activate environment_name. In Mac OSX this is ~/.bash_profile, in other environments this may be ~/.bashrc
Example:
Heres how i did it on Mac OSX
-
Open Terminal and type:
nano ~/.bash_profile -
Go to end of file and type the following, where p3.5 is my environment:
source activate p3.5 -
Exit File. Start a new terminal window.
-
Type the following to see what environment is active
conda info -e
The result shows that Im using my p3.5 environment by default.
For Windows:
Create a command file (.cmd) with activate environment_name and follow these instructions to have it execute whenever you open a command prompt
- Create a batch file command, e.g. my_conda.cmd, put it in the Application Data folder.
- Configure it to be started automatically whenever you open
cmd. This setting is in Registry:
key: HKCUSOFTWAREMicrosoftCommand Processor
value: AutoRun
type: REG_EXPAND_SZ
data: %AppData%my_conda.cmd
from this answer: https://superuser.com/a/302553/143794
How to change default Anaconda python environment
Under Linux there is an easier way to set the default environment by modifying ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile
At the end youll find something like
# added by Anaconda 2.1.0 installer
export PATH=~/anaconda/bin:$PATH
Replace it with
# set python3 as default
export PATH=~/anaconda/envs/python3/bin:$PATH
and thats all there is to it.