[ferret_users] Miniconda from Homebrew

[Karl Smith - NOAA Affiliate <karl.smith@xxxxxxxx>]

I have been meaning to write to the list about using the Homebrew installation of Miniconda.  It seems strange to use one package manager (Homebrew) to install another package manager (Miniconda), instead of just installing Miniconda directly from the Miniconda site (https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html).  Maybe this is so these two package managers "play well" together.  If it works, then great; which is why I haven't made any comments about this arrangement before now. 

However, about a month ago one user here at NOAA/PMEL had problems with this arrangement after an update.  He ended up removing Miniconda to do a complete fresh reinstall, only to discover the miniconda recipe in Homebrew no longer existed.  After installing Miniconda downloaded from the miniconda site, everything worked fine.

I do not know what the current situation is with the miniconda package from Homebrew, or PyFerret within this framework.  But if users experience problems with this arrangement, please try installing Miniconda and PyFerret as mentioned in the README.md file at the PyFerret GitHub site https://github.com/NOAA-PMEL/PyFerret (the link for the README.md file is https://github.com/NOAA-PMEL/PyFerret/blob/master/README.md)  

But as Ryo mentioned, creating a script to do the conda activate and then add any additional paths to the environment variables is an excellent idea (there is also an example in that README.md file).  Changes to the pyferret-activate.sh script under the etc/conda/activate.d/ directory are likely to be lost when PyFerret is updated.

Best regards,

Karl

On Thu, Mar 5, 2020 at 7:01 PM Ryo Furue <furue@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I recommend creating this kind of wrapper (script) around pyferret:

#!/bin/sh

CONDABASE=/usr/local/miniconda

. $CONDABASE/bin/activate FERRET

# export FER_GO="$FER_GO $HOME/lib/ferret" # <- Your customizations if necessary

exec $CONDABASE/bin/pyferret "$@"

naming this script "pyferret" and forget about the path issues forever!  All you need is to find out where your "condabase" is.  The above example is for the homebrew installation of miniconda.

Ryo

--

Karl M. Smith, Ph.D.
JISAO Univ. Wash. and PMEL NOAA
"The contents of this message are mine personally and do
not necessarily reflect any position of the Government
or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration."