title: How do I prevent Conda from activating the base environment by default?
body: <p>I recently installed anaconda2 on my Mac. By default Conda is configured to activate the base environment when I open a fresh terminal session.</p>
  <p>I want access to the Conda commands (i.e. I want the path to Conda added to my <code>$PATH</code> which Conda does when initialised so that's fine).</p>
  <p>However I don't ordinarily program in python, and I don't want Conda to activate the base environment by default.</p>
  <p>When first executing <code>conda init</code> from the prompt, Conda adds the following to my <code>.bash_profile</code>:</p>
  <pre><code># &gt;&gt;&gt; conda initialize &gt;&gt;&gt;
  # !! Contents within this block are managed by 'conda init' !!
  __conda_setup=&quot;$('/Users/geoff/anaconda2/bin/conda' 'shell.bash' 'hook' 2&gt; /dev/null)&quot;
  if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
      eval &quot;$__conda_setup&quot;
  else
  if [ -f &quot;/Users/geoff/anaconda2/etc/profile.d/conda.sh&quot; ]; then
      . &quot;/Users/geoff/anaconda2/etc/profile.d/conda.sh&quot;
  else
      export PATH=&quot;/Users/geoff/anaconda2/bin:$PATH&quot;
  fi
  # fi
  unset __conda_setup
  # &lt;&lt;&lt; conda initialize &lt;&lt;&lt;
  </code></pre>
  <p>If I comment out the whole block, then I can't activate any Conda environments.</p>
  <p>I tried to comment out the whole block except for</p>
  <pre><code>export PATH=&quot;/Users/geoff/anaconda2/bin:$PATH&quot;
  </code></pre>
  <p>But then when I started a new session and tried to activate an environment, I got this error message:</p>
  <pre><code>CommandNotFoundError: Your shell has not been properly configured to use 'conda activate'.
  </code></pre>
  <p><a href="https://askubuntu.com/questions/849470/how-do-i-activate-a-conda-environment-in-my-bashrc">This question</a> (and others like it) are helpful, but doesn't ultimately answer my question and is more suited for linux users.</p>
  <p>To be clear, I'm not asking to remove the <code>(base)</code> from my <code>$PS1</code> I'm asking for Conda not to activate base when I open a terminal session.</p>