Using conda install on a server

conda is great, it makes installing lots of packages easy. However, if you have an account on a server which already has conda installed, you should use conda to only install packages for your own user, not system-wide. To do this, you should make use of conda environments.

For example, let’s say you want to use cdo on your server. First, create a conda environment, I’ve called it cdo-env:

conda create -y -n cdo-env

Now activate your environment, so you can work within it:

conda activate cdo-env

When you’re in the environment, the shell prompt may include the name of the environment, as a handy reminder:

(cdo-env) [sweeneyc@login ~]$

Now you can install cdo within your cdo-env environment:

conda install -c conda-forge cdo

If all goes well, this should install cdo within your cdo-env enviroment, and you can use it whenever you like!

To close/exit your conda environment, use the command:

conda deactivate

That’s it!