How to use ANACONDA's Python from Julia

General Usage
1

Hi,
I am using Pycall to call Python from Julia. From Julia Prompt I used Pkg.add(“PyCall”). During its installation its downloading miniconda for Python.
I have anaconda in my PC and want to use Anaconda’s Python. Is their any way?

2

From the package README file:

If you want to use a different version of Python than the default [miniconda], you can change the Python version by setting the PYTHON environment variable to the path of the python executable and then re-running Pkg.build(“PyCall”). In Julia:

ENV[“PYTHON”] = “… path of the python program you want …”
Pkg.build(“PyCall”)

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3

Is Anaconda’s Python on the path? If so, it should not download a new Python installation.

As pointed out by @dpsanders in the post below, this is the default only for Linux. Julia on Windows and Mac downloads a minimal private Python installation.

4

That changes as of IJulia 1.4 (if I remember correctly). The default is now always to download a new conda installation, to try to ensure the correct versions of everything.

5

How can you do it on Windows?

6

The same thing should work, or run set PYTHON=c:\path\to\python in a prompt before starting julia.

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7

ive not had any luck with this on windows:

ive tried:

julia> ENV[“PYTHON”] = “C:\Users\jason\Anaconda3\python.exe”
ERROR: syntax: invalid escape sequence

and

julia> ENV[“PYTHON”] = "C:\Users\jason\Anaconda3"
ERROR: syntax: invalid escape sequence

is it because python.exe is version 3.7.0?

8

You can either do it as ihnorton suggested or you can do it the way you tried. When doing the latter, you should escape the backslash. i.e.,
ENV["PYTHON"] = "C:\\Users\\jason\\Anaconda3"
I am not sure whether you should add \\python.exe though.

9

Yes, PYTHON should be the path of the Python executable (including the executable name). Note that you can also use raw"C:\Users\jason\Anaconda3\python.exe" to avoid escaping the backslashes.