Better hint error message

[asmeurer]

We could make the hint error message better, so that users actually have an idea how to fix things. See astropy/astropy#2759 (comment) for some suggestions.

[asmeurer]

For conda update --all, all the packages are already installed, so the error message should suggest to conda remove any of the combinations to fix things. For other cases, it just means to remove the suggested packages from the list you are installing from. I'm not sure how to make this distinction in the code, though.

[astrofrog]

In the case where one of the conflicting packages is anaconda, maybe you could instead emit a special message that says 'You are about to update a package that is part of the set of packages that ship with anaconda. If you continue, you will no longer be able to do conda update anaconda (but conda update --all will work). Do you wish to continue? [y/n]' - or have the user pass a specific flag for example. I guess what I mean is that specifically in the case where anaconda is a conflicting 'package', it would be worth having a special message.

[cdeil]

I understand that the suggested solution conda remove anaconda doesn't remove any files.
But I guess I'll also not receive updates for the packages in anaconda any more in the future, which is not what I want.
What I wanted here was the recently released Astropy 0.4, but still have a "normal" anaconda install where I receive all the updates for numpy, scipy, ...

[asmeurer]

You'll receive updates from the conda update --all. You won't get any of the new packages automatically.

If you want to keep the anaconda metapackage, but get updates to individual packages, just run conda update anaconda when there is a new version of anaconda, and conda update astropy and so on for the individual packages. It will lead to an inconsistent package state from the point of view of conda update --all, so you'll just have to update packages individually.

[mcg1969]

This issue is old enough that Aaron's last comment is no longer true ;-) Seems to me that it could and should be closed, especially since we have other newer issues open about better solver hints.

[kalefranz]

works for me

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