Cannot create environment on cifs filesystem

[fcivardi]

Below is my multi users conda configuration on Ubuntu server 18.04 LTS. There is a base environment, in /opt/conda, and I create in /opt/conda/envs environments used by all users. I now want to give, to every user, the possibility to create local environments, to make experiments. The home directory of the users is on a cifs filesystem, /mnt/home/username/, so that it can be shared with Windows too. Cifs does not support symlinks.

When I try creating a local environment, like:
conda create -n newenv python=3.7 numpy

I get:
ERROR conda.core.link:_execute(700): An error occurred while installing package 'defaults::ca-certificates-2020.7.22-0'.
Rolling back transaction: done
[Errno 95] Operation not supported: 'cacert.pem' -> '/mnt/home/francescoc/.conda/envs/newenv/ssl/cert.pem'

I tried with the --copy option, to avoid symlinks, but I get the same error above.

I also tried with allow_softlinks: False in the local .condarc (there isn't a general .condarc)

I see that mnt/home/francescoc/.conda/envs/newenv/ssl/cert.pem does not exists, the folder ssl contains only an empty subfolder /misc.

I found here a similar issue, I thougth the --copy option had solved it.

conda info:
active environment : base
active env location : /opt/conda
shell level : 1
user config file : /mnt/home/francescoc/.condarc
populated config files : /mnt/home/francescoc/.condarc
conda version : 4.8.4
conda-build version : not installed
python version : 3.7.9.final.0
virtual packages : __cuda=10.2
__glibc=2.27
base environment : /opt/conda (read only)
channel URLs : https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/linux-64
https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/noarch
https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/linux-64
https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/noarch
package cache : /opt/conda/pkgs
/mnt/home/francescoc/.conda/pkgs
envs directories : /mnt/home/francescoc/.conda/envs
/opt/conda/envs
platform : linux-64
user-agent : conda/4.8.4 requests/2.24.0 CPython/3.7.9 Linux/4.15.0-112-generic ubuntu/18.04.5 glibc/2.27
UID:GID : 318401126:318400513
netrc file : None
offline mode : False`

Thank you for helping me.
Francesco

[tvoirand]

Hello,

I obtained the same error when trying to create an environment using --prefix on a VirtualBox shared folder.

I tried adding always_copy: true and allow_softlinks: False to .condarc and executing conda env create --prefix ./env --file environment.yml, without success.

Symlinks are disabled by default on VirtualBox shared folders for security reasons. I am using a Linux VM installed on a Windows Host.

I am investigating enabling symlinks on VirtualBox shared folders in parallel. But I would like to understand what is wrong with always_copy (shouldn't it avoid symlinks?).

Thanks,
Thibaut

[atmadeep]

I don't this is just an issue with cifs filesystems. I'm currently trying this on an external SD-card with NTFS formatting, on my Jetson AGX orin.