Combining Git Bash, VS Code and Conda

Combining Git Bash, VS Code and Conda#

User types

This page is useful for user type 5.

Conda in Git Bash#

Git Bash is a shell (also referred to as “the terminal”) that is automatically installed with git. It provides Unix-like commands on a Windows OS, and is recommended for working with open source projects like Jupyter (for example pip install, building Jupyter books, using Git Bash in VS Code, etc). To do this, conda needs to be setup properly; this is described here:

There are two things to do before you can use conda in your Git Bash CLI: 1) adding Anaconda to your PATH variables (as user, not as system/admin), and 2) setting up Anaconda to run on Git Bash.

  1. update the PATH variables:

  • search for ‘env’ in the windows search to find the settings page. Anaconda doesn’t recommend adding them to the system PATH, therefore when searching for the setting with the Windows search, so be careful to open “edit environment variables for your account”; do not “edit the system environment variables”.

  • Identify the box for adding variables for a specific user (the top box), not the system.

  • select the line with ‘Path’ and click edit

  • Add the Anaconda3 and Anaconda3/Scripts directories to PATH.

You will know if this worked because the conda commands below will not produce an error. You can also check by opening a Git Bash terminal and listing your Anaconda environments with conda env list.

  1. To setup Anaconda, open git bash and run the collowing commands (note, the first two commands to create myenv can be skipped if you already have an Anaconda environment; e.g., default is base):

  • conda create -n myenv python

  • conda install -n myenv numpy

  • run conda init bash to link conda to Git Bash

  • restart shell (type exit to close)

  • run conda activate myenv

  • restart shell

Check if it worked by opening a notebook in an aribtrary DIR using the command jupyter lab --notebook-dir DIR.

Usually, Anaconda works by default in the MacOS terminal. To check if it works for you type conda in the termal and execute. If you get help page for conda, you’re all set. In VS code, open a new terminal by clicking View > Terminal in the top menu bar.

If you don’t get a help page but something like:

zsh: command not found: conda

then do the following:

  1. Find out where Anaconda is installed on your system. If you left everything as default during the installation, Anaconda is installed in /Users/<username>/anaconda3 if you used the install script, or in /Users/<username>/opt if you used the graphical interface to install Anaconda.

  2. Execute the following line:

     source <anaconda-installation-dir>/bin/activate

  3. Then:

     conda init zsh

  4. Restart the terminal / VS Code then test by executing conda again. This time, it should give you the help page. You now have access to you Anaconda environments in your command line.

Note

This is not the preferred installation method: Powershell has a different set of terminal commands that are not Unix-based, whereas Git Bash does. Since the vast majority of coding information and examples on the internet related to Jupyter and other open source projects uses Unix-based commands, we strongly recommend you always run Git Bash for your work in the terminal.

Using Git Bash in VS Code (Windows only)#

By default, Powershell is the default terminal used in VS Code. However, Git Bash is recommended because it provides Unix-like commands, making it much easier to find help on sites like Stack Exchange. It also works better with open source projects like Jupyter. Git Bash installs automatically with git which you’ll learn in the next chapter; to set as default:

  • Type Ctrk+Shift+P to open the command palette (it’s also the top item in the “View” menu list)

  • Start type “terminal default” and you will soon see and be able to select the setting “Terminal: Select Default Profile” (hit Enter)

  • select Git Bash and hit “Enter” again to set as default

When creating a new terminal via the menu bar you should now automatically start with a Git Bash terminal. Note that if a Powershell terminal still opens by default, you can always create a new terminal and manually select Git Bash.