# Choose packaging environment in Binder

**URL:** <https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/choose-packaging-environment-in-binder/6399>\
**Category:** Binder\
**Tags:** how-to\
**Created:** [October 16, 2020, 6:37am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/choose-packaging-environment-in-binder/6399 "2020-10-16T06:37:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CsatiZoltan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@CsatiZoltan](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/CsatiZoltan)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 6:37am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/choose-packaging-environment-in-binder/6399/1 "2020-10-16T06:37:11Z")

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My project supports installation through conda and through pip by providing an environment.yaml file and a requirements.txt file. I noticed that Binder selects pip in that case. Is it because .yaml is not recognized, only .yml? Apart from the extension, can I define somewhere that Binder should use conda and not pip?

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**Author:** ![sgibson91](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/sgibson91/32/487_2.png) [@sgibson91](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/sgibson91)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 7:22am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/choose-packaging-environment-in-binder/6399/2 "2020-10-16T07:22:55Z")

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Hi! You’re right about the extension, I think. If you’d like to force binder to only use the environment.yml file, you can place it inside a `.binder` or `binder` directory in the root of your project. Binder will then ignore any other configuration files that are in the root. [https://repo2docker.readthedocs.io/en/latest/usage.html#where-to-put-configuration-files](https://repo2docker.readthedocs.io/en/latest/usage.html#where-to-put-configuration-files)

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**Author:** ![CsatiZoltan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@CsatiZoltan](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/CsatiZoltan)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 9:44am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/choose-packaging-environment-in-binder/6399/3 "2020-10-16T09:44:23Z")

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Thanks! Creating a .binder directory and putting the environment.yml file solved the issue. For curiosity, I tried .yaml. That did not work. Interestingly, ReadTheDocs identifies both the .yaml and the .yml extensions.

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**Author:** ![sgibson91](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/sgibson91/32/487_2.png) [@sgibson91](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/sgibson91)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 10:55am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/choose-packaging-environment-in-binder/6399/4 "2020-10-16T10:55:28Z")

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Yes, I just opened this issue to discuss it some more [https://github.com/jupyterhub/repo2docker/issues/970](https://github.com/jupyterhub/repo2docker/issues/970)

Can you provide a link to where in the docs it says both extensions are accepted please?

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**Author:** ![CsatiZoltan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@CsatiZoltan](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/CsatiZoltan)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 1:54pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/choose-packaging-environment-in-binder/6399/5 "2020-10-16T13:54:36Z")

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`repo2docker` [does not state](https://repo2docker.readthedocs.io/en/latest/search.html?q=yaml#) that .yaml is accepted. What I referred to was ReadTheDocs, which [does allow .yaml](https://docs.readthedocs.io/en/stable/development/design/yaml-file.html#format).  
To me, accepting .yaml is not a big issue, I just reported it that you know about it.

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**Author:** ![sgibson91](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/sgibson91/32/487_2.png) [@sgibson91](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/sgibson91)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 1:59pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/choose-packaging-environment-in-binder/6399/6 "2020-10-16T13:59:06Z")

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Oh sorry! Because we build our documentation with RTD, I thought you were referring to our r2d or binder docs - not _literally_ RTD! 😂

It’s probably not a big deal, but we could do something like a pre-build check and provide some feedback along the lines of “are you sure this is correct?” - make it a little less painful to figure out why something is broken