Micromamba User Guide#

micromamba is a tiny version of the mamba package manager. It is a statically linked C++ executable with a separate command line interface. It does not need a base environment and does not come with a default version of Python.

Quickstarts#

micromamba supports a subset of all mamba or conda commands and implements a command line interface from scratch.

You can see all implemented commands with micromamba --help:

$ micromamba --help

Subcommands:
  shell                       Generate shell init scripts
  create                      Create new environment
  install                     Install packages in active environment
  update                      Update packages in active environment
  repoquery                   Find and analyze packages in active environment or channels
  remove                      Remove packages from active environment
  list                        List packages in active environment
  package                     Extract a package or bundle files into an archive
  clean                       Clean package cache
  config                      Configuration of micromamba
  info                        Information about micromamba
  constructor                 Commands to support using micromamba in constructor
  env                         List environments
  activate                    Activate an environment
  run                         Run an executable in an environment
  ps                          Show, inspect or kill running processes
  auth                        Login or logout of a given host
  search                      Find packages in active environment or channels

To activate an environment just call micromamba activate /path/to/env or, when it’s a named environment in your root prefix, then you can also use micromamba activate myenv.

micromamba expects to find the root prefix set by $MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX environment variable. You can also provide it using CLI option -r,--root-prefix.

Named environments then live in $MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX/envs/.

For more details, please read about configuration.

After activation, you can run install to add new packages to the environment.

$ micromamba install xtensor -c conda-forge

Using create, you can also create environments:

$ micromamba create -n xtensor_env xtensor xsimd -c conda-forge
                                           __
          __  ______ ___  ____ _____ ___  / /_  ____ _
         / / / / __ `__ \/ __ `/ __ `__ \/ __ \/ __ `/
        / /_/ / / / / / / /_/ / / / / / / /_/ / /_/ /
       / .___/_/ /_/ /_/\__,_/_/ /_/ /_/_.___/\__,_/
      /_/

conda-forge/noarch       [====================] (00m:01s) Done
conda-forge/linux-64     [====================] (00m:04s) Done

Transaction

  Prefix: /home/wolfv/miniconda3/envs/xtensor_env

  Updating specs:

  - xtensor
  - xsimd


  Package        Version  Build        Channel                    Size
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Install:
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  _libgcc_mutex      0.1  conda_forge  conda-forge/linux-64     Cached
  _openmp_mutex      4.5  1_gnu        conda-forge/linux-64     Cached
  libgcc-ng        9.3.0  h5dbcf3e_17  conda-forge/linux-64     Cached
  libgomp          9.3.0  h5dbcf3e_17  conda-forge/linux-64     Cached
  libstdcxx-ng     9.3.0  h2ae2ef3_17  conda-forge/linux-64     Cached
  xsimd            7.4.9  hc9558a2_0   conda-forge/linux-64     102 KB
  xtensor         0.21.9  h0efe328_0   conda-forge/linux-64     183 KB
  xtl             0.6.21  h0efe328_0   conda-forge/linux-64     Cached

  Summary:

  Install: 8 packages

  Total download: 285 KB

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Confirm changes: [Y/n] ...

After the installation is finished, the environment can be activated with:

$ micromamba activate xtensor_env

Specification files#

The create syntax also allows you to use specification or environment files (also called spec files) to easily re-create environments.

The supported syntaxes are:

Simple text spec files
Conda YAML spec files
Explicit spec files
conda-lock YAML spec files

Simple text spec files #

The txt file contains one spec per line. For example, this could look like:

xtensor
numpy 1.19
xsimd >=7.4

To use this file, pass:

$ micromamba create -n from_file -f spec_file.txt -c conda-forge

Note

You can pass multiple text spec files by repeating the -f,--file argument.

Conda YAML spec files #

More powerful are YAML files like the following, because they already contain a desired environment name and the channels to use:

name: testenv
channels:
  - conda-forge
dependencies:
  - python >=3.6,<3.7
  - ipykernel >=5.1
  - ipywidgets

They are used the same way as text files:

$ micromamba create -f env.yml

Note

CLI options will keep precedence over target prefix or channels specified in spec files.

Warning

YAML spec files do not allow multiple files.

Explicit spec files #

Using conda you can generate explicit environment lock files. For this, create an environment, activate it, and execute:

$ conda list --explicit --md5

These environment files look like the following and precisely “pin” the desired package + version + build string. Each package also has a checksum for reproducibility:

# This file may be used to create an environment using:
# $ conda create --name <env> --file <this file>
# platform: linux-64
@EXPLICIT
https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/linux-64/_libgcc_mutex-0.1-conda_forge.tar.bz2#d7c89558ba9fa0495403155b64376d81
https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/linux-64/libstdcxx-ng-9.3.0-h2ae2ef3_17.tar.bz2#342f3c931d0a3a209ab09a522469d20c
https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/linux-64/libgomp-9.3.0-h5dbcf3e_17.tar.bz2#8fd587013b9da8b52050268d50c12305
https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/linux-64/_openmp_mutex-4.5-1_gnu.tar.bz2#561e277319a41d4f24f5c05a9ef63c04
https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/linux-64/libgcc-ng-9.3.0-h5dbcf3e_17.tar.bz2#fc9f5adabc4d55cd4b491332adc413e0
https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/linux-64/xtl-0.6.21-h0efe328_0.tar.bz2#9eee90b98fd394db7a049792e67e1659
https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/linux-64/xtensor-0.21.8-hc9558a2_0.tar.bz2#1030174db5c183f3afb4181a0a02873d

To install such a file with micromamba, just pass the -f flag again:

$ micromamba create -n xtensor -f explicit_env.txt

Note

Explicit spec files are single-platform.

`conda-lock` YAML spec files #

Using conda-lock, you can generate lockfiles which, like explicit spec files, pin precisely and include a checksum for each package for reproducibility. Unlike explicit spec files, these “unified” lock files are multi-platform.

These files are named conda-lock.yml by default, and look like:

# This lock file was generated by conda-lock (https://github.com/conda/conda-lock). DO NOT EDIT!
#
# A "lock file" contains a concrete list of package versions (with checksums) to be installed. Unlike
# e.g. `conda env create`, the resulting environment will not change as new package versions become
# available, unless you explicitly update the lock file.
#
# Install this environment as "YOURENV" with:
#     conda-lock install -n YOURENV --file conda-lock.yml
# To update a single package to the latest version compatible with the version constraints in the source:
#     conda-lock lock  --lockfile conda-lock.yml --update PACKAGE
# To re-solve the entire environment, e.g. after changing a version constraint in the source file:
#     conda-lock -f environment.yml --lockfile conda-lock.yml
version: 1
metadata:
  content_hash:
    osx-64: c2ccd3a86813af18ea19782a2f92b5a82e01c89f64a020ad6dea262aae638e48
    linux-64: 06e0621a9712fb0dc0b16270ddb3e0be16982b203fc71ffa07408bf4bb7c22ec
    win-64: efee77261626b3877b9d7cf7bf5bef09fd8e5ddfc79349a5f598ea6c8891ee84
  channels:
  - url: conda-forge
    used_env_vars: []
  platforms:
  - linux-64
  - osx-64
  - win-64
  sources:
  - environment.yml
package:
- name: _libgcc_mutex
  version: '0.1'
  manager: conda
  platform: linux-64
  dependencies: {}
  url: https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/linux-64/_libgcc_mutex-0.1-conda_forge.tar.bz2
  hash:
    md5: d7c89558ba9fa0495403155b64376d81
    sha256: fe51de6107f9edc7aa4f786a70f4a883943bc9d39b3bb7307c04c41410990726
  category: main
  optional: false
- name: ca-certificates
  version: 2023.5.7
  manager: conda
  platform: linux-64
  dependencies: {}
  url: https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/linux-64/ca-certificates-2023.5.7-hbcca054_0.conda
  hash:
    md5: f5c65075fc34438d5b456c7f3f5ab695
    sha256: 0cf1bb3d0bfc5519b60af2c360fa4888fb838e1476b1e0f65b9dbc48b45c7345
  category: main
  optional: false

To install such a file with micromamba, just pass the -f flag again:

$ micromamba create -n my-environment -f conda-lock.yml

documentation

Micromamba User Guide

Contents

Micromamba User Guide#

Quickstarts#

Specification files#

Simple text spec files #

Conda YAML spec files #

Explicit spec files #

`conda-lock` YAML spec files #

documentation

Micromamba User Guide

Contents

Micromamba User Guide#

Quickstarts#

Specification files#

Simple text spec files#

Conda YAML spec files#

Explicit spec files#

conda-lock YAML spec files#

Simple text spec files #

Conda YAML spec files #

Explicit spec files #

`conda-lock` YAML spec files #