How to install Anaconda on Red Hat-family Linux

Installing Anaconda Distribution on a Red Hat-family Linux host gives each user a local conda base environment without replacing the distribution Python that dnf and system tools use. The current Linux installer supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux 8 or later, CentOS Stream releases with glibc 2.28 or newer, and Fedora systems that match the published Linux architecture.

Anaconda publishes shell installers per architecture from repo.anaconda.com, and Red Hat-family packages only supply the basic download, certificate, and extraction tools around that installer. Installing under $HOME/anaconda3 keeps conda in the user's profile and avoids placing Anaconda's Python ahead of system Python for every user.

Silent mode with -b and -p creates repeatable install logs and skips installer prompts, so review the Anaconda legal terms before running it. conda init bash changes ~/.bashrc for the current user; run the dry-run form first on managed shell profiles, and install the optional X11, OpenGL, and ALSA libraries only when Anaconda Navigator must run on a minimal desktop.

1. Open a terminal with sudo privileges.
2. Install the base tools needed by the installer.

   $ sudo dnf install --assumeyes bzip2 ca-certificates

   Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 minimal systems commonly include curl-minimal, which provides the curl command. If curl is not present, install curl-minimal or curl according to the package policy on the host.

3. Check the CPU architecture.

   $ uname -m
   aarch64

   Use the Linux-aarch64 installer when this command returns aarch64. Use the Linux-x86_64 installer when it returns x86_64.

4. Download the current Anaconda Distribution Linux installer for aarch64.

   $ curl --fail --location --remote-name https://repo.anaconda.com/archive/Anaconda3-2025.12-2-Linux-aarch64.sh

   For x86_64, use https://repo.anaconda.com/archive/Anaconda3-2025.12-2-Linux-x86_64.sh instead. If the archive lists a newer installer, use the matching filename and hash for the detected architecture.

5. Verify the installer hash against the official archive entry.

   $ sha256sum Anaconda3-2025.12-2-Linux-aarch64.sh
   be13a20f31d82508a061984fa3555369cfd8e4692643721415c19e7dc2e9e0f9  Anaconda3-2025.12-2-Linux-aarch64.sh

   Do not run the installer when the local hash differs from the value listed for the same filename at repo.anaconda.com/archive. A mismatch means the file is incomplete, stale, or not the archive entry selected for this host.

6. Review Anaconda's legal terms before running silent mode.

   https://anaconda.com/legal

7. Install Anaconda Distribution into the current user's home directory.

   $ bash ./Anaconda3-2025.12-2-Linux-aarch64.sh -b -p "$HOME/anaconda3"
   PREFIX=/home/user/anaconda3
   Unpacking bootstrapper...
   Unpacking payload...
   Installing base environment...
   installation finished.

   Use an empty destination such as $HOME/anaconda3. Pointing the installer at an existing conda prefix can damage environments that are already in use. Current Linux installers require glibc 2.28 or newer, so RHEL 7 and CentOS 7 need an older archived installer instead.

8. Activate conda in the current terminal.

   $ source "$HOME/anaconda3/bin/activate"

9. Initialize conda for future Bash sessions.

   $ conda init bash
   modified      /home/user/.bashrc
   
   ==> For changes to take effect, close and re-open your current shell. <==

   conda init bash updates the current user's ~/.bashrc. Run conda init bash --dry-run first when the profile is managed by configuration tools.
   Related: How to initialize Conda for a shell
   Related: How to disable automatic activation of the Conda base environment

10. Open a new terminal window.
11. Confirm that the shell can run conda.

    $ conda --version
    conda 25.11.1

    The exact version changes with the installer release. The command should run without command not found.

12. Confirm that the base environment is in the user's Anaconda directory.

    $ conda info
    
         active environment : base
        active env location : /home/user/anaconda3
              conda version : 25.11.1
             python version : 3.13.9.final.0
                     solver : libmamba (default)
                   platform : linux-aarch64
    ##### snipped #####

13. Run a local Python smoke test from the Anaconda environment.

    $ python -c "import sys; print(sys.version.split()[0])"
    3.13.9

14. Remove the downloaded installer after the install is verified.

    $ rm Anaconda3-2025.12-2-Linux-aarch64.sh

    This removes only the shell installer in the current directory. It does not remove the Anaconda installation under $HOME/anaconda3.