title: In the conda environment list, what does the asterisk mean?
body: <p>I am learning about conda and I am trying to verify I understand the notion of the "active" environment as opposed to ... something else I don't understand.</p>
  
  <p>In particular, <code>conda env list</code> or <code>conda info -e</code> will list environments and always seems to put an asterisk next to one of them, like here where it puts it by the "base" environment:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$ conda info -e
  # conda environments:
  #
  base                  *  /Users/alexis/miniconda3
  mynotebook               /Users/alexis/miniconda3/envs/mynotebook
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But this does <em>not</em> mean the base environment is currently active, as I can see by doing <code>conda info</code>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$ conda info | head -3
  
       active environment : None
              shell level : 0
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So if the asterisk does not indicate the active environment, what does it indicate?</p>