From f0b19ccff65ad1a2adbf0c43e84d4a5adeda3d87 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Joseph Hunkeler <jhunkeler@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2016 09:39:53 -0400
Subject: Initital commit

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+*****************************
+Keeping AstroConda "Like New"
+*****************************
+
+Anaconda's package manager, Conda, will not automatically update unless a newer version of a package is detected during
+a routine package installation. Suffice to say, unless you keep your packages up to date with ``conda update``, the
+packages installed in your Anaconda distribution will remain relatively static.
+
+Updating AstroConda
+===================
+
+The update procedure for AstroConda is relatively straight foward.
+
+.. code-block:: sh
+
+    # Will update all packages
+    $ conda update --all
+
+    # Will update packages if a new public release is present
+    $ conda update astroconda
+
+(`ref <http://conda.pydata.org/docs/using/pkgs.html#package-update>`__)
+
+
+Downgrading Packages
+====================
+
+Did a recent update break your code? Don't wait around for a bugfix... Keep working. For example, if a bug is introduced
+into ``stsci.tool``, you can easily downgrade it to a known-good version:
+
+.. code-block:: sh
+
+    $ conda search stsci.tools
+    .  3.4.0.git              py35_6  astroconda
+    *  3.4.1.git              py35_0  astroconda
+
+The ``*`` denotes the current version installed locally.
+
+Now the only thing left do is tell Conda to install the previous release of the package:
+
+.. code-block:: sh
+
+    $ conda install stsci.tools=3.4.0
+
+At this point you should be back in business.
+
+(`ref <http://conda.pydata.org/docs/faq.html#managing-packages>`__)
+
+
+Pinning Packages
+================
+
+.. caution:: Pinning packages has the potential to break Conda. Only pin packages as a last resort.
+
+Let's take the previous example one step further... Imagine ``stsci.tools`` is broken, and the hotfix release of ``3.4.2``
+only partially solved the original issue. Now what? You still need to receive updates to other packages, but
+``stsci.tools`` keeps trying to update back to ``3.4.2`` every time you touch ``conda update``.
+
+
+.. code-block:: sh
+
+    $ echo "stsci.tools <=3.4.0" > ${CONDA_ENV_PATH}/conda-meta/pinned
+
+From now on, future calls to ``conda update`` will omit ``stsci.tools`` while performing dependency resolution. However,
+a clear side-effect of this will also be losing the ability to update packages that depend strictly on version ``3.4.2``.
+Although this is not a permanent solution it can prove useful in a bad situation.
+
+(`ref <http://conda.pydata.org/docs/faq.html?highlight=pinning#pinning-packages>`__)
-- 
cgit