Conda channels in new documentation

Data Management
#1

We’ve been having a conversation on GitHub concerning the mismatch between lsst-sims and astropy 1.2 when performing a conda installation of v12_0

We’ve been reminded we should be using this channel when installing lsst-sims:
https://conda.lsst.codes/sims
rather than what is indicated in the doc, under 2. Install Science Pipelines in a Conda Environment
https://pipelines.lsst.io/install/conda.html
Maybe the lsst-sims installation should point to their Confluence area (https://confluence.lsstcorp.org/display/SIM/Catalogs+and+MAF) for now? Or some indication made in the above pages that the conda channel to use is different? Tagging @ljones and @jsick for lack of a better idea :slight_smile:

#2

I need to file a ticket for @jsick to add the conda sims info to the docs. You can get a version of lsst_sims from the stack channel, but it’s not as up to date as the sims channel. Also, the stack channel currently has a problem with astropy being incompatible with sims (which is being fixed).

#3

Is the best solution (for now) to include an advisory at the top of https://pipelines.lsst.io/install/conda.html that directs lsst-sims users to https://confluence.lsstcorp.org/display/SIM/Catalogs+and+MAF instead of continuing with that pipelines installation doc?

#4

I think that would work. We are doing our best to keep that confluence page up to date.

#5

I’ve pushed the update to https://pipelines.lsst.io/install/conda.html

Hopefully on the DM side we’ll get better at conda releases, including automated weeklies.

#6

Thanks @jsick. I updated our confluence page accordingly.

I think part of the problem is understanding all the dependencies and how to handle versioning. For example, if someone wants sims_2.2.6, but sims_2.2.5 also lives on the same channel, how do we make sure that they get the appropriate versions of lsst_apps? And how do we make sure they get the version of lsst_sims that they want? All should definitely be possible with conda (I mean, that’s exactly what happens with the normal conda packages), but I don’t think we’ve got it built into our conda build/release system. (Maybe we do? Questions for @jmatt and @mjuric I guess). And making sure that versions resolve properly when we don’t have simple names is another question.