Mac using default Python despite Anaconda install Mac using default Python despite Anaconda install bash bash

Mac using default Python despite Anaconda install


The first matching executable is the one that is run. From what I can gather you are concatenating your PATH variable in such a way that:

/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin

comes before:

$HOME/anaconda/bin

So make sure that the anaconda directory is the first one, meaning that it will have precedence:

export PATH="$HOME/anaconda/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH"


If your default shell is sh (or possibly anything but bash) you won't be able to access your Anaconda python. If this is your case:

  1. Go to Terminal/Preferences
  2. Find 'Shells open with:'
  3. Click the button for 'Command (complete path)'
  4. Type /bin/bash as path

Restart your terminal. When you type $ which python you should now see the anaconda python. For me it was /Users/myname/anaconda3/bin/python.

$ echo $PATH will also change now to show to correct path, with anaconda first:

/Users/myname/anaconda3/bin:/Users/myname/anaconda3/condabin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Library/TeX/texbin:/opt/X11/bin

In Atom I had to add a shebang to the beginning of each script to set this as my preference:#!/Users/myname/anaconda3/bin/python


If you are using fish, you can find Anaconda backup your old .bash_profile as .bash_profile-anaconda.bak, and it added 2 lines at the bottom of .bash_profile which looks like this:

# added by Anaconda2 4.1.1 installerexport PATH="/Users/username/anaconda/bin:$PATH"

However fish does not read it, so you have to add it in fish config file manually, which is in ~/.config/fish/config.fish:

set -x PATH /Users/username/anaconda/bin $PATH