Installation path and UAC problems on Windows

[wohenbushuang]

Hi, I'm a new user from conda. I found that the pathes used by pixi seem not following conventions.

When I install pixi, the default installation path is given as %LOCALAPPDATA%/pixi (sounds like install only for me) and no option to install pixi for all users. But in the next step, UAC approvement is still required.

Besides, for users who don't have enough space on system volume C:, when choosing "install for all users", the default installation path of conda will be C:\ProgramData\miniconda, then I can easily change its volume letter, D: for example. After that, both conda program files and future package cache will all be in D:. But for pixi, I need to create an extra cache folder on D:, and create C:\ProgramData\pixi\config.toml as instruction to add PIXI_CACHE_DIR configuration.

1. Why installing pixi only for me still need UAC approvement?
2. If UAC is required, why not pixi provides "install for all users" option to install to C:\ProgramData\pixi\, as where the configuration file is? And the same for cache folder to C:\ProgramData\rattler\. Then I can easily change them to D:.
3. During pixi installation, how about providing a step to specify the location of cache folder?

---

Update: I just found that PIXI_CACHE_DIR need to be set as environment variable not in configuration file.
4. Why pixi uses separated environment variables and files for configuration (cannot be configured in just one place)?

[SheldonWBM]

As an alternative, why don't you use a container such as Docker or Podman. Note: Since I need to use NVIDIA GPUs, I stick to Docker.
You can then use an OS like Alpine (for minimalism) or Ubuntu (i.e. NVIDIA bloat) and mount your home dir as a volume.
i.e. (a docker-compose.yml)

my-pixi-stuff:
  build:
    context: .
    dockerfile: pixi-stuff.dockerfile
  ....
  volumes:
    - "./myPixiStuff:/home/ubuntu/myPixiStuff  

In the myPixiStuff dir you will see a .pixidir.
The .pixi dir will contain everything from pixi install

To install pixi in the dockerfile, use curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | zsh (there is likely a wget equivalent cmd)
The pixi.toml and pixi.lock are outside the .pixi dir. The .pixi dir is usually not shared as different users might cause issues from permission issues to broken packages. This is sort of a scratch/cache dir.
You should share the pixi.toml and the pixi.lock (preferably with a git like program rather than a shared dir for multiple users but, that is up to you).

I hope this is helpful to you. Containerizing reduces the risks of experimentation and provides a better controlled environment. Not perfect, but a lot better. It does not help too much with disk storage limitations. I tend to be biased towards container solutions rather than VMs. If on Windows, Docker is run as a minimalist VM with a few limitations.

[wohenbushuang]

Thanks for your advice. I admit that using Docker is better for controlled environment, and it is a good practice on engineering deployment. However, my main usage is for researching, so I don't need to care about controlled environment but quick add/remove packages and reproduction. And, using WSL will require to copy dataset into it and cost more storage space.

[SheldonWBM]

You can use Docker on Windows (and run Linux or Windows containers) without the overhead of WSL. WSL is only required if you need Docker Desktop (Linux containers) to access the GPU or specialty hardware (which you may have). If using Docker Engine, WSL (a compatibility layer) might make Docker faster but, is not required. I used Docker on Windows without WSL (years ago). While I use Docker Engine on Linux, Docker Desktop helps reduce the complications of Docker containers, especially for new users. You don't need to know commands like 'docker system prune' or 'docker compose ps' since there is a GUI.

If you want to run Windows Docker Containers (which I have never attempted).
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/windowscontainers/quick-start/run-your-first-container
https://hub.docker.com/r/microsoft/windows