Cross-platform conda env yml

I use Linux, OSX and Windows on a daily basis, changing between OSes depending on the task at hand. Some tools are more convenient in an OS than others but sometimes I just have to move from my MBP to my desktop (Linux/Windows), this time around the task is plotting. After some time struggling with the SigmaPlot’s GUI, I decided to stick with what I know and use Matplotlib.

I use Anaconda for environment management as it is versatile and simple to use, when you’re only on one OS that is. Sharing its YAML config file between OSes can be a hassle, since some OS will have a certain dependency which another OS will not. Searching around I found conda-devenv

RTFM

I’ll keep it short and just make note of the workflow I did to generate a YAML that I could use in OSX and Windows:

• Generate a YML with conda on OSX
  conda env export --no-builds > environment.yml
• Create a new conda environment on Win
  conda env create -n my_env -f environment.yml
• Fail to create a new environment due to OS dependencies
• Create an environment.devenv.yml with some added platform specific dependency requirements on OSX

dependencies:
  - appnope=0.1.0 # [osx]
  - ipython-7.8.0
  - ...

• Install and run conda-devenv on OSX or Win
• Navigate to the config file and run conda-devenv on OSX or Win
  conda devenv -f environment.yml
• Run conda-devenv to create environment
  conda devnev
• Activate newly created environment
  conda activate my_env

At this point the environment will be usable on your machine.
Note: I manually went into the “original” YAML file and added OS specifics, if I find a better way, I’ll document it here