Conda create env from file - How to specify prefix in the file?

Question

I read that the prefix line in the environment.yaml file is not used by conda env create. Two of the posts on SO pointing to this fact are:

export conda environment without prefix variable which shows local path to executable

Anaconda export Environment file

I have the reverse problem of most of these posts

I want to specify inside the file the actual prefix, so that different users setup their environments in their home directory in a shared machine.

However, as previously mentioned the command for creating environments is completely ignoring the prefix line.

I managed to setup an environment to a specific path using a prefix like this:

conda env create --prefix=<prefix> --file=environment.yaml

but I am trying to figure a way to define the prefix so the user will not have to type it themselves but it will be automatically configured to be their home directory.

Answer 1

I work around the lacking of proper solution by using Makefile target

# project_root/Makefile
# from my experience mamba installs and updates faster than conda
# conda install mamba -n base -c conda-forge
env-create:
    mamba env create -p ./envs -f environment.yml

env-update:
    mamba env update -p ./envs -f environment.yml

usage:

$ make env-create
# or
$ make env-update