Updating Anaconda fails: Environment Not Writable Error

Question

I\'m trying to update Anaconda and its packages using conda update --name root conda, but it fails every time.

Error message : Environme

Answer 1

If you get this error under Linux when running conda using sudo, you might be suffering from bug #7267:

When logging in as non-root user via sudo, e.g. by:

sudo -u myuser -i

conda seems to assume that it is run as root and raises an error.

The only known workaround seems to be: Add the following line to your ~/.bashrc:

unset SUDO_UID SUDO_GID SUDO_USER

...or unset the ENV variables by running the line in a different way before running conda.

If you mistakenly installed anaconda/miniconda as root/via sudo this can also lead to the same error, then you might want to do the following:

sudo chown -R username /path/to/anaconda3

Tested with conda 4.6.14.