Anaconda is a free Python distribution focused on large-scale data processing, analytics, and numeric computing. The following are the key features of Anaconda:
- It includes the most popular Python packages for scientific, engineering, numerical, and data analysis.
- It is completely free and available on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X platforms.
- Installations do not require root or local admin privileges, and the entire package installs in a single folder.
- Multiple installations can coexist, and the installation does not affect pre-existing Python installations on the system.
- It includes modules such as Cython, NumPy, SciPy, pandas, IPython, matplotlib, and homegrown Continuum packages such as Numba, Blaze, and Bokeh.
Note
For more information on this, refer to the link at https://store.continuum.io/cshop/anaconda.
The following instructions detail how to install Anaconda on all three platforms. The download location is http://continuum.io/downloads. The version of Python is Python 2.7 in Anaconda by default.
Perform the following steps for installation:
- Download the Linux installer (32/64-bit) from the download location.
- In a terminal, run the following command:
bash <Linux installer file>For example,
bash Anaconda-1.8.0-Linux-x86_64.sh. - Accept the license terms.
- Specify the install location. I tend to use
$HOME/localfor my local third-party software installations.
As a shortcut, you can define ANACONDA_HOME to be the folder into which Anaconda was installed. For example, on my Linux and Mac OS X installations, I have the following environment variable setting:
ANACONDA_HOME=$HOME/local/anaconda
On Windows, it would be as follows:
set ANACONDA_HOME=C:Anaconda
Add the Anaconda bin folder to your PATH environment variable. If you wish to use the Python Anaconda by default, you can do this by making sure that $ANACONDA_HOME/bin is at the head of the PATH variable before the folder containing System Python. If you don't want to use the Anaconda Python by default, you have the following two options:
- Activate the Anaconda environment each time as needed. This can be done as follows:
source $HOME/local/anaconda/bin/activate $ANACONDA_HOME - Create a separate environment for Anaconda. This can be done by using the built-in
condacommand as described here: https://github.com/pydata/conda.
Note
For more information, read the Conda documentation at http://docs.continuum.io/conda/index.html. More detailed instructions on installing Anaconda can be obtained from the Anaconda Installation page at http://docs.continuum.io/anaconda/install.html.