The default channel for miniforge is default?

Windows 10

The installation instructions for miniforge on github says "... the only difference between Miniforge and Mambaforge was the presence of the mamba Python package. To minimize surprises, we decided to add mamba to Miniforge too."

Surprises are minimized, perhaps. But not eliminated.

I read in various places that the default channel for mambaforge is conda-forge. I installed miniconda, but the default channel is default, not conda-forge.

This is probably not the right place to phrase my question like this, but: can someone here speak with authority and explain the relationship of mamba, miniforge, and mambaforge to conda-forge?

True or false: the default channel for miniforge is conda-forge.

Edit #2 ('top posted' above the previous edit)

I found this post where somewhat asks a similar question. It's probable that I've been using the wrong commands to answer these questions: is mamba getting packages from conda-forge or isn't it? From what channel did a given channel come from?

One interesting thing from that post is the fact that there are two 'conda config's. If conda config is called from any env, it queries the base env. To see the config of the current env, one has to run $CONDA_PREFIX/bin/conda config .... Furthermore, 'mamba config' does not have all the features of 'conda config'

I think I'll take this up on mamba git-hub

Edit after comment

I should have been more explicit. I have installed miniforge.
I'll display the outputs from 'mamba install pytest', and 'mamba install -c conda-forge pytest'

It appears that 'conda install pytest' is not coming from conda-forge. Unless I am misinterpreting what I see.

(I don't know what I did to muck up the formatting.)

Consider the report for

'mamba install pytest'

The following packages will be downloaded:

package                    |            build
---------------------------|-----------------
iniconfig-1.1.1            |     pyhd3eb1b0_0           8 KB
pluggy-1.0.0               |  py311haa95532_1          33 KB
pytest-7.4.0               |  py311haa95532_0         729 KB
------------------------------------------------------------
                                       Total:         769 KB

The following NEW packages will be INSTALLED:

iniconfig          pkgs/main/noarch::iniconfig-1.1.1-pyhd3eb1b0_0
pluggy             pkgs/main/win-64::pluggy-1.0.0-py311haa95532_1
pytest             pkgs/main/win-64::pytest-7.4.0-py311haa95532_0

Now consider the report for

'mamba install -c conda-forge pytest'

Package                Version  Build        Channel                 Size
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Install:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  + ucrt            10.0.22621.0  h57928b3_0   conda-forge/win-64       1MB
  + vc14_runtime     14.36.32532  hdcecf7f_17  conda-forge/win-64     739kB

  Upgrade:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  - openssl               3.0.11  h2bbff1b_2   pkgs/main
  + openssl                3.1.3  hcfcfb64_0   conda-forge/win-64       7MB
  - vs2015_runtime   14.27.29016  h5e58377_2   pkgs/main
  + vs2015_runtime   14.36.32532  h05e6639_17  conda-forge/win-64      17kB

-----------------------------------------

Solution

When migrating from Anaconda (or any other previous conda installation), it can happen that the "old" channels are still found in a configuration file, which may not be deleted when uninstalling Anaconda.

Look for the file .condarc in your home directory (tested on Windows) and delete it prior to installing Miniforge. Then you should see conda-forge as your only channel after installing Miniforge:

conda config --show channels

shows

channels:
  - conda-forge