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What is a channel?

A channel is a location (a URL) where conda can search for packages to install on your machine. When you authenticate to Anaconda.com for the first time using your organization access token, conda is automatically configured to use Anaconda’s private repository channels. These channels are curated with Common Vulnerability and Exposure (CVE) information for each package. After your initial authentication, you should see the following default_channels: in your .condarc file:

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Channel types

  • Anaconda channels: The Anaconda channels connect to the repository that is curated and maintained by Anaconda. These channels provide you with thousands of the most popular data science platform packages available today. It is possible to apply a policy filter to the Anaconda channels. That policy filter will not affect Organization channels that are created from the same source Anaconda channel.
  • Virtual channels: Your organization’s channels are virtual copies of the Anaconda channels. Apply a policy filter to a virtual channel to restrict its available packages, making it unique. For example, you can have multiple channels that are virtual copies of the Anaconda main channel, but the packages they provide can be different due to their applied policy filters.
  • External channels: External channels will point to a location (a URL) that is outside of Anaconda to look for packages.
    You cannot apply policy filters to external channels. Currently, Anaconda only supports connection to external channels located at https://conda.anaconda.org/, but we plan to support any URL soon.
  • Community channels: Community channels provide organizations with access to a broader ecosystem of conda packages built and maintained by volunteers in the open-source community.
    While the individual packages in the community channels are maintained by volunteers, the channels themselves are hosted and maintained by Anaconda. Anaconda selects which community-maintained packages to include in the community channels, based on Anaconda’s review of their suitability and their compatibility with Anaconda-built packages.
    Community channels are not enabled by default. For more information about enabling community channels, see Enabling community channels.
    You cannot create virtual copies of the community channels.

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Channel permissions

There are two levels of permissions associated with channels in Anaconda: internal and private.
  • Internal channels: Internal channels are visible to all members of your organization who have been assigned a seat.
  • Private channels: Private channels have their contents restricted to those members who are part of the group the channel is assigned to. For more information about assigning channels to a group, see Groups.

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Creating an organization channel

  1. From the Channels page, click Add channel to open the Create Channel dialog.
  2. Enter a unique channel name.
  3. Select a channel type.
  4. Select a source channel from the Source dropdown or enter the address for your external source channel.
  5. Set the permission level for the channel.
  6. Click Save.
Your new channel will appear on the Channels page.
If you set the channel permission level as private, you will also be prompted to add the channel to a group. If you do not wish to add the newly created private channel to a group, click Cancel in the Assign Groups to Channel dialog.

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Assigning channel permissions

You can change the permissions level of a channel at any time:
  1. From the Channels page, open the actions dropdown beside the channel.
  2. Select either Make Channel Internal or Make Channel Private. (Your available option depends on the current permissions level of the channel.)
Private channels that are not assigned to a group are only visible to organization administrators.

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Viewing channel details

From the Channels page, select any channel to view its details. The channel details page provides the following information about the channel:
  • The channel’s address (a URL you can copy and add to your .condarc file to access the channel’s packages)
  • General information about the channel
  • Information about the policy that is applied to the channel
You can also track your channel from the channel details page.

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Channel policy deltas

Policy filters, once applied to a channel, run every four hours. Sometimes, due to newly reported CVEs or an updated CVE score or status, the contents of your channel will change when the filter performs its scheduled run. A package may become available that was not available previously, or you could find that a package you’ve been using is removed from your channel! From the channel details page, click View Policy Deltas to view a list of deltas. Deltas are the recorded changes to your channel’s contents. Policy delta history begins from when you first applied the policy to the channel. Once the policy is removed from the channel (if you need to edit it, for example) the policy delta history is lost. A new policy delta history is established once the policy is reapplied to the channel. Use the Start and End date filters to narrow your timeline to locate a specific delta, if necessary. Select a count under either PACKAGES ADDED or PACKAGES REMOVED to see a list of packages from a specific run.
Click the arrow to return to your channel policy deltas.

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Channel tracking

Track your channels to receive emails at configurable intervals to keep up-to-date with the latest changes to your channels’ contents. From the Channels page, click Channel Tracking to view the Track Channels page.
You can also track a channel from the channel details page.
Select your channel from the list, choose which types of emails you would like to receive, and then set the frequency at which you would like to receive them. You can receive emails in realtime, daily, or weekly. Click Save to retain your changes.
Because deltas are generated when the policy filter runs, the realtime option can generate a maximum of one email every four hours.

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Adding an organization channel to your .condarc file

Business tier only.
In order to access packages from your organization’s channels, you must configure your .condarc file to tell conda where the channel is located. Complete the following steps to add one of your organizations’ channels to your .condarc file:
  1. Navigate to your Organizations page.
  2. Select your organization.
  3. Select Channels from the left-hand navigation.
  4. Select Copy channel path.
  5. Open your terminal and run the following command: 
    # Replace <CHANNEL_PATH> with the copied channel path
conda config --prepend channels <CHANNEL_PATH>
    This command adds the specified channel to the top of your channels: list, giving it top priority when conda is searching for packages. For more information about channel priority and additional conda config command arguments, see Channels.
Example .condarc file
    channel_settings:
      - channel: https://repo.anaconda.cloud/*
        auth: anaconda-auth
    channels:
      - https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/<ORG_ID>/<CHANNEL_NAME>
      - defaults
    add_anaconda_token: true
    restore_free_channel: false
    default_channels:
      - https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/main
      - https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/r
      - https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/msys2
If you want to use your organizations’ channels exclusively, make sure that they are the only channels present in your .condarc’s channels: list.

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Removing a channel from your .condarc file

To remove a channel from your channels: list, open a terminal and run the following command: 
# Replace <CHANNEL> with the URL listed in the
# channels: section of the .condarc file
conda config --remove channels <CHANNEL>
For example, if you don’t want to pull packages from the default channels, you can run the following command: 
conda config --remove channels defaults
This will leave the channels listed under default_channels: in the .condarc file for later use, if needed, but won’t look for packages in those locations.
You can add the default channels to your .condarc file’s channels: list at any time by running the command: conda config --append channels defaults