Anaconda equivalent of "setup.py develop" - anaconda

Question

How can I install a package under development to an Anaconda environment?
With pip:
pip install -e /path/to/mypackage
or with regular setuptools:
python /path/to/mypackage/setup.py develop

Answer 1

There is also conda develop available now.
http://conda.pydata.org/docs/commands/build/conda-develop.html
Update in 2019: conda develop hasn't been maintained and is not recommended. See https://github.com/conda/conda-build/issues/1992
Recommendation is to use python setup.py develop or pip install -e .

Answer 2

Using either of those will work with Anaconda. Make sure that you have pip or setuptools installed into the conda environment you want to install into, and that you have it activated.

Answer 3

This is the equivalent to pip install -e .
conda install conda-build
conda develop .

Answer 4

As explained in this gh issue thread, because of build isolation and dependency installation, Anaconda developers recommend using:
pip install --no-build-isolation --no-deps -e .

Answer 5

Build / Host Environment
To create build and host environments and a build script go to your recipe directory and use
conda debug /path/to/your/recipe-directory
as documented here. This will print an instructive message like
################################################################################
Build and/or host environments created for debugging. To enter a debugging environment:
cd /home/UserName/miniconda3/conda-bld/debug_1542385789430/work && source /home/UserName/miniconda3/conda-bld/debug_1542385789430/work/build_env_setup.sh
To run your build, you might want to start with running the conda_build.sh file.
################################################################################
(The message might tell you incorrectly, that it created a test environment.) Your source code has been copied to the .../work directory and there is also a conda_build.sh script. Note, that sourcing the build_env_setup.sh will load both build and host environments.
You can work on your code and your recipe and build with the conda_build.sh, but you won't get a proper conda package, as far as I know. When you are finished, you can remove the debug environment:
conda deactivate # maybe twice
conda build purge
Test Environment
To get the test environment, you have to build the package first and then debug that. This might be useful to fix your test files.
conda build /path/to/your/recipe-directory # creates mypackage*.tar.bz2
# find file location of mypackage*.tar.bz2 with:
conda search --info --use-local mypackage # look at the url row for the path
cd /path/to/miniconda3/conda-bld/linux-64/ # go to that path, can be different
conda debug mypackage*.tar.bz2
This will print e. g.:
################################################################################
Test environment created for debugging. To enter a debugging environment:
cd /home/UserName/miniconda3/conda-bld/debug_1542385789430/test_tmp && source /home/UserName/miniconda3/conda-bld/debug_1542385789430/work/conda_test_env_vars.sh
To run your tests, you might want to start with running the conda_test_runner.sh file.
################################################################################
Again, remove with
conda deactivate
conda build purge
Run Environment
This is actually no debugging, but the general process of building and installing a local package. With the run environment you can check, whether all dependencies are specified in the requirements/run section. Also pinning can be an issue.
(base) $ conda build /path/to/your/recipe-directory
(base) $ conda create --name package-env --use-local mypackage
(base) $ conda activate package-env
(package-env) $ python
>>> import mypackage
You can also list the dependencies of your package with (man page)
conda search --info --use-local mypackage
A last hint: If you want to know the versions of the dependencies and see, whether pinning works, try (man page)
conda render /path/to/your/recipe-directory