ADD clarifications to README

.condarc-template.yaml

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # Path can be anywhere, $HOME, SAN, etc.
 
 
-# Path where your environments are saved
+# Path where your environments are saved, change paths to your desired locations, using absolute paths
 envs_dirs:
   - /path/to/conda/envs
 proxy_servers:

README.md

 # conda-configuration-8-4
 
-Small tutorial with starting steps and templates for using **conda/mamba** on the servers of Fachbereich 8.4
+Small tutorial with starting steps and templates for using **conda/mamba** on the servers of Fachbereich 8.4. This installation is inteded to replace personal installations of **conda** via the *Anaconda* distribution, which is no longer permitted at PTB.
+
 ---
 
 If you are using *Windows*, you can find the "official" PTB **miniforge** installation in the *Softwarecenter*
+
 ---
 On the compute servers, a central installation of both **conda** and **mamba** is provided. **mamba** is functionally identical to **conda**, it is just a faster reimplementation in *C++*, use whichever you prefer, the commands are identical.
 
 The executables of both programs are located in the `/home/admin84/shared_public`, which should be configured on all servers the be included in `$PATH`. You can verify you are using the correct executable by running `conda info`. If this returns a different location than above, please remove your personal previous installation of (ana)**conda** first. 
 
-If you have used **conda** before, you have update you **bash** initialisation first by running
+## If you have used **conda** before
+
+Please back up the composition of your environments using `conda env export --from-history` while the respective environments are activated.
+
+---
+
+
+Before using the 8.4 installation of conda you have to update your **bash** initialisation first by running
 
 ```
-conda init --reverse
+conda init --reverse # (only necessary if you previously used conda)
 conda init
 ```
 
 You can use the `.condarc` template provided here to customise the locations where your environments and package caches are located when using **conda**. Please consider using the *san* for you paths to avoid cluttering the local drives. 
 
-**Conda** will be default use the *python* version which is installed on the host machine, but you can use any supported version when creating new environments, e.g. 
+**conda** will be default use the *python* version which is installed on the host machine, but you can use any supported version when creating new environments, e.g. 
 
 ```
 mamba create python=3.12 numpy ipython --name mamba-test
 ```
 .
-The default channel configured is *conda-forge*, which is still permitted by PTB. Please do not override this when creating new environments unless you are 100% certain that the licence of the channel in question permits use by PTB. When in doubt, please ask.
+The default channel configured is [*conda-forge*](https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/), which is still permitted by PTB. Please do not override this when creating new environments unless you are 100% certain that the licence of the channel in question permits use by PTB. When in doubt, please ask.
 
 If any problems arise or you have further questions, please contact [me](oliver.henze@ptb.de) and I will amend this document with clarifications and answer questions.
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