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anacondachocolatey

Can installing chocolately break my anaconda environments?

Hi I've installed Chocolatey via powershell and now all of my anaconda environments seem to have reset. I have reinstalled basic applications like jupyterlab, which show up in the index but can't start them from the command line nor from the navigator.

Is this because of Chocolately (I know it seems obvious but want to ask just to make sure)? If it is, can I fix this somehow without reinstalling all of anaconda?

Solution

  • TL;DR: No, it shouldn't have broken Anaconda, but this is somewhat dependent on your system. If restarting your machine hasn't fixed it, you should probably follow Anaconda's steps for recovering your installation.

    During install, Chocolatey (non-exhaustively):

    • Downloads the Chocolatey nupkg and unpacks it
    • Creates a new folder (typically C:\ProgramData\Chocolatey)
    • Adds some environment variables
    • Adds a path to the bin/shim folder to PATH

    You can see the script(s) that install it here and here. It shouldn't disrupt other installed software.

    Having said that:

    • If something you installed via Chocolatey has added a shim (or similar), and you've added Anaconda (or a dependency) to PATH this may cause issues (see: Anaconda interfering with other software on Windows)
    • If you've installed something with Chocolatey that has messed with Python, Anaconda, etc, this may obviously cause issues
    • If you installed Chocolatey in a non-default way, that may cause issues.