How to share an Anaconda Python environment between multiple users?

Question

I have Anaconda 5.1 Python distribution installed (by the system admin) on Windows 10, for all users. I can create an environment and then view the available environments:

λ conda create --name py35 python=3.5 anaconda

...

λ conda env list
# conda environments:
#
base    *  C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3
py35       C:\Users\<my-user-name>\AppData\Local\conda\conda\envs\py35

When I log in as a different user, however, only the base environment is visible/available. How can I create an environment and make it available to all users of the system?

The documentation discusses multi-user installations, but I cannot see how to make environments available to other users.

Answer 1

I would shy away from sharing environments with other users, because if they don't know what they are doing, they could add packages that could conflict with other packages and/or even delete packages that another user might need. The preferred approach is that after you have created an environment, you export it as a yml file:

conda env export > environment.yml

Then you send the users the yml file and have them build their own environment using the yml:

conda env create -f environment.yml

If you really want to use a shared environment where every user can access, then you have to use the -p or --prefix option in your create:

conda create -p C:/full/public/path/to/py35 python=3.5

And then instruct your users to add the public path (C:/full/public/path/to) to their conda config file. Then, they should be able to see the environment when running conda env list.

Answer 2

The key here is adding the path to the folder containing the environment(s) to the user's conda configuration file .condarc. Like this:

envs_dirs:
  - C:\full\path\to\environments\folder

This makes all the environments (subfolders within) available to the user. It does not appear to be possible to make a specific, named environment available.

As has been pointed out, you can create an environment in a specific location using the -p flag, and then add the parent directory to the configuration file, but this is not a requirement. This may be useful, however, to avoid permissions errors if sharing environments that exists in protected user areas.

On Windows 10, my user configuration file was in C:\Users\<my-user-name>\, and I just added the above text to the end of it.