title: conda install InvalidSpecError
body: <p>When trying to run a conda install for a package, I get the following spec error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$conda install hmmlearn
  Fetching package metadata .....
  Solving package specifications:
  
  InvalidSpecError: Invalid sepc: =20190808
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>We are currently using conda version 4.3.23, and our existing infrastructure makes upgrading this non-trivial. This started about 2 weeks ago, and we have had multiple users across multiple environments reporting the same issue. There seem to be a few other posts on the conda-build git project with the same error (<a href="https://github.com/conda/conda-build/issues/3915" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>).</p>
  
  <p>All of these environments have been cloned off the same base, but there have been no updates to the base environment in months. Users with previous clones, as well as making fresh clones of this environment, both have the same result. Pip installing these packages seems to work fine as a patch, but this is not an ideal long-term solution.</p>
  
  <p>Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT 1:</strong>
  While not a solution, we came up with a workaround, so I figured I'd post it here.</p>
  
  <p>Installing a newer version of conda in an alternative location, and using this specific activate binary to activate the environment allows installs to be functional once again.</p>