conda config --add channels is not what it says it is

[basnijholt]

adding multiple channels doesn't work, so the name should be:
conda config --add channel

[bsipocz]

@basnijholt - in my reading in the configuration there is a key channels, so it should be indeed used as channels in the command above. It's unfortunate that currently it's not possible to add multiple values for a given key.
However it's a useful feature request I think.

[kalefranz]

It's unfortunate that currently it's not possible to add multiple values for a given key.

Implementing that capability would be a good first issue for a new contributor.

[marcelotrevisani]

Today after work I will try to add that

[jdhalimi]

Hello, I tried an implementation here and it seems to support both

conda config --add channels conda-canary
conda config --add channel conda-canary

[mbargull]

Thanks for taking a look at this @jdhalimi. To retain the one-to-one mapping of configuration parameters from conda config and .condarc, I think we don't necessarily want to enable/translate conda config --add channel conda-canary. Rather, we should just allow the currently supported

conda config --add channels defaults --add channels conda-canary

to be optionally be given as

conda config --add channels conda-canary defaults

. This likely just requires nargs=2 to be changed to nargs='+' at
https://github.com/conda/conda/blob/4.6.0a2/conda/cli/conda_argparse.py#L446
https://github.com/conda/conda/blob/4.6.0a2/conda/cli/conda_argparse.py#L454
https://github.com/conda/conda/blob/4.6.0a2/conda/cli/conda_argparse.py#L470
and loop over the those multiple values accordingly at
https://github.com/conda/conda/blob/4.6.0a2/conda/cli/main_config.py#L281
https://github.com/conda/conda/blob/4.6.0a2/conda/cli/main_config.py#L317
.

[mbargull]

Note that for --add (which is an alias for --prepend)

conda config --add channels defaults --add channels conda-canary

translates to

conda config --add channels defaults
conda config --add channels conda-canary

and thus to

channels:
  - conda-canary
  - defaults

. When supporting nargs='+', the reverse order, i.e.,

conda config --add channels conda-canary defaults

would be more natural. Hence, you'd need to take care of this change of order when expanding the loop at
https://github.com/conda/conda/blob/4.6.0a2/conda/cli/main_config.py#L281
.

[jdhalimi]

hello @mbargull,

thank you for having a look at this change, I was training my github skills with a "good first issue"
I didn't expect you would spend time on it as I didn't post a pull request.

I strongly agree that changing conda config is not a big improvement and will involve regressions for users that uses it already.

I read your suggestions for handling multiple channels in one call. I also prefer this approach (even if it is almost equivalent to multiple calls to --add channels).

I will try to submit an implementation in my repo as soon as I have a piece of time.

Thanks again,
Jean-David.

[mbargull]

I will try to submit an implementation in my repo as soon as I have a piece of time.

Great, thanks!

[kalefranz]

In my comment above, I think what I had in mind was

conda config --add channels conda-forge --prepend channels conda-canary --set path_conflict warn

[github-actions]

Hi there, thank you for your contribution!

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Thanks!