Miniforge on Caviness
Miniforge is available as a VALET package on Caviness. To check available versions, use:
$ vpkg_versions miniforge Available versions in package (* = default version): [/opt/shared/valet/2.1/etc/miniforge.vpkg_yaml] miniforge Tthe preferred conda-forge installer and includes conda, mamba, and their dependencies * 25.11.0-1 Miniforge py312 25.11.0-1 for Linux (x86_64)
To load Miniforge, use:
$ vpkg_require miniforge/25.11.0-1 Adding package `miniforge/25.11.0-1` to your environment
Creating Python virtual environments with Conda
Once you have loaded Miniforge, you can create a new Conda environment with the conda create command, passing in the packages you want to include in the environment. We also strongly recommend using the --prefix option to specify a path for your environment in your workgroup storage to avoid filling up your home storage. It may be convenient for you to use the WORKDIR_SW environment variable, which is set automatically when you start a shell in your workgroup.
For example, to create an environment in your workgroup storage that includes the latest version of Python detected by Conda:
[(my_workgroup:user)@login00.caviness ~]$ conda create --prefix=${WORKDIR_SW}/python-env python
conda create command. Conda recommends that you list all the packages you want to install at once (rather than in separate conda install commands after creating the environment) to avoid dependency conflicts.
--name or -n are in your home directory. However, the limited home directory quotas (20 GB) can be filled up quickly. It is recommended to create environments by specifying path --prefix in your work directory instead of $HOME to avoid quota issues.
After creating the Conda environment, activate it with:
[(my_workgroup:user)@login00.caviness ~]$ conda activate ${WORKDIR_SW}/python-env
To list packages in the currently active environment, use:
(/work/my_workgroup/sw/python-env) [(my_workgroup:user)@login00.caviness ~]$ conda list # packages in environment at /work/my_workgroup/sw/python-env: # # Name Version Build Channel _openmp_mutex 4.5 20_gnu conda-forge bzip2 1.0.8 hda65f42_9 conda-forge ca-certificates 2026.2.25 hbd8a1cb_0 conda-forge icu 78.3 h33c6efd_0 conda-forge ld_impl_linux-64 2.45.1 default_hbd61a6d_102 conda-forge libexpat 2.7.4 hecca717_0 conda-forge libffi 3.5.2 h3435931_0 conda-forge libgcc 15.2.0 he0feb66_18 conda-forge libgomp 15.2.0 he0feb66_18 conda-forge liblzma 5.8.2 hb03c661_0 conda-forge libmpdec 4.0.0 hb03c661_1 conda-forge libsqlite 3.52.0 hf4e2dac_0 conda-forge libstdcxx 15.2.0 h934c35e_18 conda-forge libuuid 2.41.3 h5347b49_0 conda-forge libzlib 1.3.2 h25fd6f3_2 conda-forge ncurses 6.5 h2d0b736_3 conda-forge openssl 3.6.1 h35e630c_1 conda-forge pip 26.0.1 pyh145f28c_0 conda-forge python 3.14.3 h32b2ec7_101_cp314 conda-forge python_abi 3.14 8_cp314 conda-forge readline 8.3 h853b02a_0 conda-forge tk 8.6.13 noxft_h366c992_103 conda-forge tzdata 2025c hc9c84f9_1 conda-forge zstd 1.5.7 hb78ec9c_6 conda-forge
To deactivate the environment:
(/work/my_workgroup/sw/python-env) [(my_workgroup:user)@login00.caviness ~]$ conda deactivate [(my_workgroup:user)@login00.caviness ~]$
To remove the environment:
[(my_workgroup:user)@login00.caviness ~]$ conda remove --prefix=${WORKDIR_SW}/python-env --all
To remove the unused packages and caches:
[(my_workgroup:user)@login00.caviness ~]$ conda clean --all
Migrating Environments
While an environment is active, you can export a list of the packages installed in the environment that can be used to recreate the environment elsewhere. For example, with the Python environment from the previous section active:
[(my_workgroup:user)@login00.caviness ~]$ conda activate ${WORKDIR_SW}/python-env (/work/my_workgroup/sw/python-env) [(my_workgroup:user)@login00.caviness ~]$ conda export --format=environment-yaml --file=python_env.yaml
Then, you can recreate the same environment with:
(/work/my_workgroup/sw/python-env) [(my_workgroup:user)@login00.caviness ~]$ conda deactivate [(my_workgroup:user)@login00.caviness ~]$ conda create --prefix=${WORKDIR_SW}/python-env-copy --file=python_env.yaml