Introduction to Conda
31 August 2022
Ed-DaSH is a data science training programme for health and biosciences researchers. EPCC manages Ed-DaSH, and provides technical support for its workshops through the Edinburgh International Data Facility.
This lesson is an introduction to Conda for (data) scientists with an emphasis on Bioinformatics. Conda is an open source package and environment management system that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. Conda installs, runs, and updates packages and their dependencies. Conda easily creates, saves, loads, and switches between environments on your local computer. While Conda was created for Python programs it can package and distribute software for any languages such as R, Ruby, Lua, Scala, Java, JavaScript, C/ C++, FORTRAN. This lesson motivates the use of Conda as a development tool for building and sharing project specific software environments that facilitate reproducible bioinformatic workflows.