[conda] Demo tutorial for building your own custom non-Python conda package

[Steve]

(cross posting from the Anaconda group)

I recently had the situation where I needed to create a conda env out of
non-Python programs. Despite the large amounts of official documentation on
the topic, I still found the whole process extremely confusing. So, I put
together a minimal example of the techniques I used in this demo:

https://github.com/stevekm/conda-package-demo
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fstevekm%2Fconda-package-demo&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFZaABmwj77gzYVC8dTMPVXASdxag>

Running this demo will:

-

download a copy of the Minconda installer to your current directory (
Miniconda3-4.4.10-MacOSX-x86_64.sh
<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2FMiniconda3-4.4.10-MacOSX-x86_64.sh&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNF-vpT03dFFUKRIjFgQvYGrdMRRDw>
used by default, you can change this to any other recent version of
Anaconda or Miniconda)
-

create a directory called conda in the current directory and install
conda to that location
-

build the included custom package in the custom-package-0.1 directory
-

create a conda env called custom-package-0.1 from the package
- load the new env to test that it works by calling the package's main
script

All the commands are wrapped up in the included Makefile, which you can
inspect to see how it is all being accomplished.


You can use this repository as a template for building your own custom
conda packages, especially ones that may not actually use Python programs.


If you already have Anaconda/Miniconda installed globally then you may want
to temporarily deactivate it and remove it from your PATH (I've only tested
it on machines that didn't already have conda installed).


Hope this helps!