How to add package to conda environment without pip

Question

How can I add a package to an existing conda environment?

If it is a python package I can use pip install <package>, but what if pip does not work?

Is it sufficient to activate the environment and use conda install <package>?

Answer 1

You've answered your own question. In fact you really want to do conda install ... instead of using pip if you can.

You can install a conda package also without activating the environment. Just use conda install -n <env_name> <package> or conda install -p <path/to/env> <package>.

Answer 2

If you want to install a specific package inside a specific conda environment, you can use the following command.

First activate the conda environment and then do:

$ conda install --name <conda_env_name> -c <channel_name> <package_name> 

For a concrete example, let's assume that you want to install chainer from the channel anaconda to an already created conda environment named chainerenv, then you can do:

$ conda install --name chainerenv -c anaconda chainer