Using conda with Travis CI

If you are already using Travis CI, using conda is a preferable alternative to using apt-get and pip to install packages. The Debian repos provided by Travis may not include packages for all versions of Python or may not be updated as quickly. Installing such packages with pip may also be undesirable, as this can take a long time, which can consume a large portion of the 50 minutes that Travis allows for each build. Using conda also lets you test the building of conda recipes on Travis.

This page describes how to use conda to test a Python package on Travis CI. However, you can use conda with any language, not just Python.

The .travis.yml file

The following code sample shows how to modify the .travis.yml file to use Miniconda for a project that supports Python 2.7, 3.5 and 3.6:

language: python
python:
  # We don't actually use the Travis Python, but this keeps it organized.
  - "2.7"
  - "3.5"
  - "3.6"
install:
  - sudo apt-get update
  # We do this conditionally because it saves us some downloading if the
  # version is the same.
  - if [[ "$TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION" == "2.7" ]]; then
      wget https://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda2-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh -O miniconda.sh;
    else
      wget https://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh -O miniconda.sh;
    fi
  - bash miniconda.sh -b -p $HOME/miniconda
  - export PATH="$HOME/miniconda/bin:$PATH"
  - hash -r
  - conda config --set always_yes yes --set changeps1 no
  - conda update -q conda
  # Useful for debugging any issues with conda
  - conda info -a

  # Replace dep1 dep2 ... with your dependencies
  - conda create -q -n test-environment python=$TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION dep1 dep2 ...
  - source activate test-environment
  - python setup.py install

script:
  # Your test script goes here

NOTE: For information about the basic configuration for Travis CI, see Building a Python Project.

Supporting packages that do not have official builds

To support a package that does not have official Anaconda builds:

1. Build the package yourself.

2. Add it to an Anaconda.org channel.

3. Add the following line to the install steps in .travis.yml so that it finds the packages on that channel:

   - conda config --add channels your_Anaconda_dot_org_username
   

   NOTE: Replace your_Anaconda_dot_org_username with your user name.

Building a conda recipe

If you support official conda packages for your project, you may want to use conda build in Travis, so the building of your recipe is tested as well.

1. Include the conda recipe in the same directory as your source code.

2. In your .travis.yml file, replace the following line:

   - python setup.py install
   

   with these lines:

   - conda build your-conda-recipe
   - conda install your-package --use-local
   

AppVeyor

AppVeyor is a continuous build service for Windows built on Azure and is an alternative to using Travis CI with conda.

For an example project building conda packages on AppVeyor, see https://github.com/rmcgibbo/python-appveyor-conda-example.