First, some nomenclature (see https://conda.io/docs/glossary.html for more):
- A recipe is a flat directory that has the information needed to build a package
- A package is a "compressed file that contains everything that a software program needs in order to be installed and run... You manage conda packages with conda."
- An environment is a "directory that contains a specific collection of conda packages and their dependencies, so they can be maintained and run separately without interference from each other."
A typical workflow: