resetting conda channel priorities - anaconda

Question

I am having issues with conda. After running commands such as:
conda install -c /my_conda_channel numpy --offline --override-channels
the default conda channel has now become 'my_conda_channel' so that each subsequent package from this channel supercedes the default channel, which is not what I want. I did the former just for testing purposes.
How do I reset the channel behaviour?

Answer 1

Change the order from ~/.condarc so that defaults the first channel as
channels:
- defaults
- conda-forge
and add this line to it
channel_priority: true
or run the following code in command-line
conda config --set channel_priority true
then again run
conda update --all
Good Luck
Edited for new versions of conda. According to conda doc
As of version 4.6.0, Conda has a strict channel priority feature. Strict channel priority can dramatically speed up conda operations and also reduce package incompatibility problems. We recommend it as a default. However, it may break old environment files, so we plan to delay making it conda's out-of-the-box default until the next major version bump, conda 5.0.
channel_priority (ChannelPriority)
Accepts values of 'strict', 'flexible', and 'disabled'.
It still accepts the old values true and false
true := flexible
false := disabled
strict := this is a new value

Answer 2

Another option would be to move your channel to the bottom of the priority list.
Run the command....
conda config --append channels my_conda_channel
You should get a response like this...
Warning: 'my_conda_channel' already in 'channels' list, moving to the bottom
Verify...
conda config --get channels
Which should give you something like...
--add channels 'defaults' # highest priority
--add channels 'my_conda_channel' # lowest priority

Answer 3

Go to your home directory and open .condarc in an editor. Go to channels and edit the priority:
channels:
- defaults
- my_conda_channel
Now defaults will be preferred over my_conda_channel. You can also delete my_conda_channel.

Answer 4

Unfortunately none of the solutions worked for me as of April 2021.
There are several .condarc files that need to be edited, to ensure desired channel priority:
~/.condac. Here you'll find "global" channels that get prepended to all the other channels added manually (default channel e.g., or conda-forge got here somehow in my case, even though I did not add it manually). Changing/adding other channels via command line interface won't supercede the top priority of the channels listed here
.condarc files in the anaconda root dir. This is where channels added manually end up (I would also check ~/anaconda3/envs/{env_names}/ for environment specific .condarc files).
If you want full control over channel priority:
Clean channels sections in the ~/.condarc file (the top one).
Edit .condarc files per the desired channel priority manually, one file per environment (including base)
Set channel priority to true or strict
Check results of your edits with conda config --show channels

Answer 5

In the conda-meta directory for the enviornment, I added a file called 'pinned':
pinned:
tensorflow ==2.2.0
tensorflow-base ==2.2.0
tensorflow-datasets ==1.2.0
tensorflow-estimator ==2.2.0
Then, conda update --all didn't update the packages:
$ conda update --all
Collecting package metadata (current_repodata.json): - NVIDIA: no NVIDIA devices found
done
Solving environment: done
==> WARNING: A newer version of conda exists. <==
current version: 4.8.4
latest version: 4.9.1
Please update conda by running
$ conda update -n base -c defaults conda
## Package Plan ##
environment location: /home/ubuntu/anaconda2/envs/ai
The following packages will be downloaded:
package | build
---------------------------|-----------------
awscli-1.18.169 | py36h5fab9bb_0 1.8 MB conda-forge
boto3-1.16.9 | pyhd8ed1ab_0 70 KB conda-forge
botocore-1.19.9 | pyhd3deb0d_0 4.1 MB conda-forge
giflib-5.2.1 | h36c2ea0_2 77 KB conda-forge
hypothesis-5.41.0 | pyhd8ed1ab_0 222 KB conda-forge
jpeg-9d | h36c2ea0_0 264 KB conda-forge
libpng-1.6.37 | h21135ba_2 306 KB conda-forge
pandas-1.1.4 | py36hd87012b_0 10.5 MB conda-forge
tornado-6.1 | py36h1d69622_0 644 KB conda-forge
------------------------------------------------------------
Total: 17.9 MB
The following packages will be REMOVED:
keras-applications-1.0.8-py_1
The following packages will be UPDATED:
awscli 1.18.168-py36h5fab9bb_0 --> 1.18.169-py36h5fab9bb_0
boto3 1.16.8-pyhd8ed1ab_0 --> 1.16.9-pyhd8ed1ab_0
botocore 1.19.8-pyhd3deb0d_0 --> 1.19.9-pyhd3deb0d_0
hypothesis 5.40.0-pyhd8ed1ab_0 --> 5.41.0-pyhd8ed1ab_0
pandas 1.1.3-py36h66e3816_2 --> 1.1.4-py36hd87012b_0
tornado 6.0.4-py36h8c4c3a4_2 --> 6.1-py36h1d69622_0
The following packages will be DOWNGRADED:
giflib 5.2.1-h516909a_2 --> 5.2.1-h36c2ea0_2
jpeg 9d-h516909a_0 --> 9d-h36c2ea0_0
libpng 1.6.37-hed695b0_2 --> 1.6.37-h21135ba_2
Proceed ([y]/n)? y
Downloading and Extracting Packages
hypothesis-5.41.0 | 222 KB | ######################################### | 100%
tornado-6.1 | 644 KB | ######################################### | 100%
boto3-1.16.9 | 70 KB | ######################################### | 100%
libpng-1.6.37 | 306 KB | ######################################### | 100%
awscli-1.18.169 | 1.8 MB | ######################################### | 100%
jpeg-9d | 264 KB | ######################################### | 100%
botocore-1.19.9 | 4.1 MB | ######################################### | 100%
pandas-1.1.4 | 10.5 MB | ######################################### | 100%
giflib-5.2.1 | 77 KB | ######################################### | 100%
Preparing transaction: done
Verifying transaction: done
Executing transaction: done
$ conda list tensorflow
# packages in environment at /home/ubuntu/anaconda2/envs/ai:
#
# Name Version Build Channel
tensorflow 2.2.0 mkl_py36h5a57954_0
tensorflow-base 2.2.0 mkl_py36hd506778_0
tensorflow-datasets 1.2.0 py36_0 anaconda
tensorflow-estimator 2.2.0 pyh95af2a2_0 conda-forge
tensorflow-metadata 0.14.0 pyhe6710b0_1

Answer 6

You can change the channel priority as follows:
conda config --get
This will list all the channels from lowest to highest priority
add channels by using
conda config --add channels ---(your channel)
The last channel you add gets highest priority.. so maintain the order. you can add channels, even if you already have them so that the priority order gets changed