conda init

Initialize conda for shell interaction.

Options:

usage: conda init [-h] [--all] [--user] [--no-user] [--system] [--reverse]
                  [--json] [-v] [-q] [-d]
                  [shells [shells ...]]

Positional Arguments

shells

One or more shells to be initialized. If not given, the default value is 'bash' on unix and 'cmd.exe' on Windows. Use the '--all' flag to initialize all shells. Currently compatible shells are {bash, fish, powershell, tcsh, xonsh, zsh}.

Named Arguments

--all

Initialize all currently available shells.

-d, --dry-run

Only display what would have been done.

setup type

--user

Initialize conda for the current user (default).

--no-user

Don't initialize conda for the current user (default).

--system

Initialize conda for all users on the system.

--reverse

Undo effects of last conda init.

Output, Prompt, and Flow Control Options

--json

Report all output as json. Suitable for using conda programmatically.

-v, --verbose

Use once for info, twice for debug, three times for trace.

-q, --quiet

Do not display progress bar.

Key parts of conda's functionality require that it interact directly with the shell within which conda is being invoked. The conda activate and conda deactivate commands specifically are shell-level commands. That is, they affect the state (e.g. environment variables) of the shell context being interacted with. Other core commands, like conda create and conda install, also necessarily interact with the shell environment. They're therefore implemented in ways specific to each shell. Each shell must be configured to make use of them.

This command makes changes to your system that are specific and customized for each shell. To see the specific files and locations on your system that will be affected before, use the '--dry-run' flag. To see the exact changes that are being or will be made to each location, use the '--verbose' flag.

IMPORTANT: After running conda init, most shells will need to be closed and restarted for changes to take effect.