I think the problem is in "conda init". That sets it up so that you can use "conda activate" in a shell and then can continue using that activated environment in the original shell. For that, the "conda" command must run as a function in the shell, not as an executable called from the shell (because one cannot scribble in the environment of the parent process -- at least not without horrible hackery).
I was not able to use miniforge without allowing it to do a "conda init". That's the part I don't like because it makes me expect that also other users who want to use the conda install of sage "the conda way" will have to have their ".bashrc" changed and I don't think that's a reasonable thing to ask just for people to run sage. There is obviously a solution: have something like "conda-shell" which starts a *subshell* with the conda initialization inserted and/or an environment activated. We know which file conda wants "dot-loaded" into the shell, so that's the one to dot-load for the subshell initialization. That's basically what "sage -sh" does. I do not know if that exists already. If it does then I think my complaint is that the sage documentation doesn't point to it. It may also be that the "sage" script itself already sets up a strong enough environment that, once installed, conda-sage doesn't actually need conda activation in order to run properly (my limited tests point in that direction). In that case it would still be good if there were a "conda-shell" to install conda-sage with, so that one doesn't need to worry about "conda init" and sanitizing one's ".bashrc" afterwards. On Tuesday, 10 February 2026 at 07:53:02 UTC-8 [email protected] wrote: The problem there at the moment for me is that it punts to "conda" documentation for how to get conda set up -- and conda seems very insistent on messing with my ".bashrc". I don't want that! You don't need this (and if I recall correctly the interactive installer asks if you want to init conda in the shell). The purpose of this option is to have the base conda env activated all the time (eg to make conda's python available on the shell), but it's perfectly fine to just have a `sage` env and activate that manually using `conda activate sage`. See https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge?tab=readme-ov-file#automatic-activation-of-environments for more details. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sage-devel/d5046560-5ff9-4dfb-8176-0efc325121can%40googlegroups.com.
