conda environment has no name visible in conda env list - how do I activate it at the shell?

Question

I have created an environment called B3 inside anaconda-navigator. It works fine if launched from within navigator.

However, when I want to activate it at the shell, I get 'could not find environmnet B3.'

If I use conda env list, the environment is visible but its name is blank. If I try using the file path instead, I get 'Not a conda environment.'

Why is the name missing, and how can I activate it from the shell?

Answer 1

Name-based reference of Conda environments only works for environments located in one of the directories listed in the envs_dirs configuration option (see conda config --describe envs_dirs). By default this corresponds to the envs/ subdirectory in the Conda installation. If you create an env outside of one of these directories, then you cannot use a name to reference it. Instead, one must activate it by its path:

Option 0: Activate by Path (Fix OP’s Typo)

conda activate /home/julianhatwell/anaconda3/envs/B3

Note that OP originally had a typo (anaconda2 should have been anaconda3). After pointing this out (see comments to question), the questioner instead requested an answer to:

“How to convert a nameless environment to named one?”

Converting to Named Environment

The following are possible ways to enabling name-based activation.

Option 1: Clone Into Directory

One option to use conda activate B3, is to recreate your B3 env in the default directory. You can use the --clone flag to accomplish this.

conda create --clone path/to/the/nameless_env -n named_env

Option 2: Add Parent Directory

Alternatively, you can add the parent directory of the environment in question to the envs_dirs configuration option.

conda config --append envs_dirs /path/to/the/parent_dir

Option 3: Symbolic Link

Another possibility is to create a symbolic link in one to the envs_dirs folders to the environment folder. It seems to work, but it is not a common practice, so it may have downsides that are unreported.

Answer 2

To get the list of the available environments use:

conda env list

To activate the nameless environment use:

conda activate <Folder>

Answer 3

When you create a conda env with --prefix, it will not have a name, and to give one do the following:

# ex path: /Users/username/opt/miniconda3/envs/`
conda config --append envs_dirs <path to env folder here>

To activate the environment:

conda activate <name of the env>

Answer 4

you can use conda rename as following (not need to change conda config):

$ conda rename -p path/to/env-123 env-123

you can get the path with conda env list

source: https://anaconda.cloud/conda-rename-command

Answer 5

It is most likely that you have ps1 value set to False, which enables prompt change with change of conda environment.

To check run from your ubuntu terminal:

$ conda config --show | grep changeps1

And set it to True using:

$ conda config --set changeps1 True

After this, you should see the currently activated conda environment name at the beginning of each prompt. PS - You may have to close and reopen the terminal for this to take effect.

Answer 6

Faced a similar issue on Apple M1 chip due to installation of miniforge3 and miniconda in two different paths.

My solution Edit the .bash_profile

Answer 7

In addition to the answer of @merv , you can also change your envs_dirs by editing ~/.condarc file directly. You can use conda config command to firstly create this file if it doesn't exist yet.

$ cat ~/.condarc
channels:
  - conda-forge
envs_dirs: ['/xxx/xxx/']