Installing dependencies for a pip-only package through conda

Question

Sometimes I need to install a pip-only package into a conda environment. If I install the package using pip install, then all the dependencies for that package are installed using pip, even if they are available to conda.

I would like to install as many packages as possible through conda, so currently I use a hack to get the list of package dependencies through pip, search for all of them on conda, conda install the ones that are found, and then go through with the pip install.

Am I right to prefer installing dependencies through conda rather than pip? And if so, can anyone think of a more elegant way to solve this problem?

Answer 1

pip and conda are two separate package managers. Only in very rare cases package managers actually work together. In practical applications conda and pip usually do not.

In reality, mixing conda and pip packages is usually unavoidable. This often leads to a messy package management, as you describe.

In my opinion, the best and currently only proper way to solve this problem is to create a conda package for all (pypi-)packages and dependencies you want to use in your conda environments.

conda-forge is a community effort that offers an easy way to contribute your own package to the conda infrastructure. You may want to check out if your package is already available, and if not if contributing is an option for you.