Conda (package manager)

As a package manager, Conda allows users to install different versions of binary software packages and their required software dependencies appropriate for their computing platform from a software repository.{{Cite web |last=Pugh |first=David R. |date=2020-07-14 |title=Getting Started with Conda |url=https://towardsdatascience.com/managing-project-specific-environments-with-conda-b8b50aa8be0e |access-date=2024-07-09 |website=Medium |language=en}} Conda checks everything that has been installed, any version limitations that the user specifies (for example, the user wants a specific package to be at least version 2.1.3), and determines a set of versions for all requested packages and their dependencies that makes the total set compatible with one another. If there is no set of compatible dependencies, it will tell the user that the requested combination of software packages at the requested versions is not possible.

Secondly, Conda allows users to create such a set of software packages in isolation from the rest of the computing platform, in what Conda calls an environment.{{Cite web |title=Managing environments — conda 24.3.1.dev40 documentation |url=https://conda.io/projects/conda/en/latest/user-guide/tasks/manage-environments.html# |access-date=2024-04-14 |website=conda.io}} This allows the user to create various sets of software packages for different projects. When the users switches between those projects, they switch to the relevant environment, thereby avoiding the re-installation or removal of conflicting packages. To further facilitate the setup of such environments, Conda can also install Python, the interpreter for the software packages itself.{{cite web |year=2015 |title=3. Managing Python |url=http://conda.pydata.org/docs/test-drive.html#managing-python |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150616213859/http://conda.pydata.org/docs/test-drive.html |archive-date=16 June 2015 |access-date=16 Jun 2015 |quote=So now let’s say you need Python 3 to learn programming, but you don’t want to overwrite your Python 2.7 environment by updating Python. You can create and activate a new environment named snakes, and install the latest version of Python 3 as follows...}}

Conda is written in the Python programming language, but can manage projects containing code written in any language, including multi-language projects.

Conda uses channels to obtain package metadata and versioning information. For example, Anaconda distribution uses Anaconda repository containing over 7500 packages as the default (called defaults) channel.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}} However, in 2024, Anaconda distribution updated its licensing terms to require fees except for few specific cases.{{Cite web |title=Navigating Anaconda Licensing Changes: What You Need to Know |url=https://www.datacamp.com/blog/navigating-anaconda-licensing |access-date=2025-04-16 |website=www.datacamp.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Mah |first=Paul |date=2024-08-21 |title=Anaconda Threatens Legal Action Over Licensing Terms |url=https://www.cdotrends.com/story/4173/anaconda-threatens-legal-action-over-licensing-terms |access-date=2025-04-16 |website=CDOTrends |language=en}} conda-forge is a popular open-source, community-run alternative that provides packages for a wide variety of software,{{Cite web |date=2025-04-14 |title=conda-forge documentation {{!}} conda-forge {{!}} community-driven packaging for conda |url=https://conda-forge.org/docs/ |access-date=2025-04-16 |website=conda-forge.org |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Opinion: Conda, Anaconda and the much bigger problem behind it |url=https://galaxyproject.org/news/2024-08-20-opinion-conda/ |access-date=2025-04-16 |website=galaxyproject.org |language=en}} whereas Bioconda is a specialized channel for packages related to bioinformatics and biomedical research.[https://bioconda.github.io/ Bioconda official website].{{cite bioRxiv |biorxiv=10.1101/207092 |first1=Bjorn |last1=Grüning |first2= |last2=the Bioconda Team |title=Bioconda: A sustainable and comprehensive software distribution for the life sciences |date=27 October 2017}} Conda also supports custom channels that can be self-hosted.{{Cite web |last=shuaijunye |title=Create custom Conda channel for package management - Azure Synapse Analytics |url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/synapse-analytics/spark/apache-spark-custom-conda-channel |access-date=2025-04-16 |website=learn.microsoft.com |language=en-us}}

• List of software package management systems
• Anaconda (Python distribution)
• Pip
• Dependency hell
• Semantic versioning

{{reflist|2}}

• {{Citation| vauthors=((Grüning, B.)), ((Dale, R.)), ((Sjödin, A.)), ((Chapman, B. A.)), ((Rowe, J.)), ((Tomkins-Tinch, C. H.)), ((Valieris, R.)), ((Köster, J.)), ((the Bioconda Team)) |title=Bioconda: sustainable and comprehensive software distribution for the life sciences | journal = Nature Methods | volume=15 | number=7 | pages=475–476 | year=2018 | doi=10.1038/s41592-018-0046-7 | url=https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-018-0046-7 | pmid = 29967506|s2cid=196664439 | pmc=11070151 }}

• {{Official website}}
• {{GitHub|conda}}

Category:Free package management systems

Category:Free software programmed in Python

Category:Software distribution

Category:Software using the BSD license