Create empty conda environment

Question

I can create a new conda environment, with program biopython with this:

conda create --name snowflakes biopython 

What if I do not want to install any program? It seems I can not do that:

» conda create --name tryout Error: too few arguments, must supply command line package specs or --file  You can specify one or more default packages to install when creating an environment.  Doing so allows you to call conda create without explicitly providing any package names.  To set the provided packages, call conda config like this:      conda config --add create_default_packages PACKAGE_NAME 

Answer 1

You can give a package name of just "python" to get a base, empty install.

conda create --name myenv python conda create --name myenv python=3.4 

Answer 2

If you've created a create_default_packages block in your .condarc file, @joelion's answer will install those packages. If you don't want those, use the --no-default-packages flag. For example:

conda create --name myenv python --no-default-packages