I can't install anaconda for python3

Question

I want to use Jupyter and all the anaconda packages with Python 3.5.

I already have Anaconda and Jupyter working with Python 2.7, but if I open a Python 3.5 session (I type python3 in the terminal) it doesn't show the usual anaconda "credits" and I can't import the modules that I want.

So I tried to download the "Anaconda Python 3.5 graphical installer" from the continuum.io website and when I run the installer it says:

Anaconda is already installed in /Users/user/anaconda. Use 'conda update anaconda' to update Anaconda.

I run it, but it says that all the packages are already installed.

What I would like:

I am installing everything from scratch on a new machine (minus the stock Python 2). But on my previous computer, i used to run python2 or python3 and have all the packages for both. I also liked that I could type ipython2 notebook or ipython3 notebook depending on which one i wanted to use. (I know that the command ipython is deprecated, what would be the alternative now?)

I've spent some time looking for a solution, somehow I redownloaded the whole anaconda package and created a separate environment for Python 3 and there it worked (i could import numpy , etc. after launching python3 ). But now I have a copy (~1Gb) of anaconda, and I have to use source activate python3 and source deactivate to toggle between the two.

How can I have the same behaviour as I used to do, without having two copies of anaconda_

Answer 1

You can use your current Anaconda installation and just create an environment based on 3.5. Anaconda will download and install all compatible packages from the repository so you have a complete installation.

In your terminal window / command shell :

conda create -n py35 python=3.5 anaconda

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Mac :

To use the new environment (in Mac OS X), you can point your IDE to the required environment folder:

/Users/username/anaconda/envs/py35/python

In the Linux shell, you just need to type:

source activate py35

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Windows :

To use the new environment (in Windows), you can point your IDE to the required environment folder:

C:\Anaconda\envs\py35\python.exe

On the Windows command line, you just need to type:

activate py35

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Linux:

To use the new environment (in Linux), you can point your IDE to the required environment folder:

/home/username/anaconda/envs/py35/python

In the Linux shell, you just need to type:

source activate py35

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Documentation: http://conda.pydata.org/docs/py2or3.html

You can add as many development environments as you need for Python 2.x/3.x using this method.

Answer 2

The copy of anaconda should be under ~/anaconda . You might have anaconda and anaconda3 . Remove the one you are not interested in. And in your ~/.profile you will find lines that initialise your environment. For my install, with command line completion, it look like:

# Anaconda
export PATH=~/anaconda/bin:"$PATH"
eval "$(register-python-argcomplete conda)"

Make sure you only keep the one you want.