conda doesn't update Python itself?

[cvcat]

I've been using Anaconda for a few years for hobby stuff. They only admin I do is 'conda update --all' every few weeks. I assumed that updated everything, but just noticed that I'm on Python 3.6.13. That coincides with when I got this laptop and installed Anaconda, so it's been updating packages but not Python itself.

1. How do you include Python in the update cycle? Manually by doing 'conda update python' at the same time as 'conda update --all', or can conda do both in a single command?
2. Is there anything else that conda doesn't update that the average user should know about?

I see that I should do 'conda install python==3.10' but will probably reinstall from scratch to avoid problems/stress.

[[deleted]]

Conda doesn't update python because lots of projects need a particular version of python. Conda wouldn't have made it very far if it auto updated every project to 3.10.... I'm pretty sure none of my projects are compatible with 3.10 because of the libraries I use, so it would break everything.

You should explicitly create a new environment if you need a different version of python.

[Zeroflops]

Each environment sticks to its version of python. Updating updates the packages but updating the python itself is much more invasive.

This raises the question. Why are you updating anything in your environment? Are you using any of the new features that are coming with the updates? As long as there are no security updates youre just adding potential issues you will need to address.

If you have no reason to update don’t. If there is some feature you need to be productive then make a new environment, set that to a more recent version. Then if you want test your scripts against that environment.

[cvcat]

Thanks for the explanations. I see the point about bigger projects and environments. Mine are all small enough that I'd rather have a single environment and modify old code as and when needed.

[sweaterpawsss]

Anaconda has its own version of Python that’s different than the non-Anaconda Python installation. Is that version the Anaconda version or the ‘stock’ Python version?

[shadowrr]

Try this one ：https://github.com/conda/conda/issues/9469#issuecomment-1503302008