Switch Spyder Environment without installing spyder at each environment

Question

I am using multiple conda environments, and use Spyder as my IDE. These environments often have the same python version, and differ based on installed packages (packages not used by spyder).

I looked how to run spyder in a certain environment, and the answers i found all state that i first have to install spyder in that environment and then run it.

However, this of course requires extra space used on my computer. Is there a way to use spyder in different conda environments, without installing spyder multiple times (or maybe just once per python version)?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

As explained in the comments, the quick answer is only to install the spyder-kernel package within the desired conda environment. You don't need to install the whole spyder package again and again.

Answer 2

(Spyder maintainer here) We added some improvements in our 3.3 versions to help users deal more easily with multiple environments. Please see this blog post for the details, in particular the section called Even more fixes and refinements with Spyder 3.3.1.

Note: A little bug that affects this surfaced after we released 3.3.1, just in case you find that problem too. A fix will be available in 3.3.2, and more improvements on how to handle conda environments are planned for Spyder 4, to be released in 2019.