conda: packages found to be in conflict, but only ONE package is listed. What does this mean?

Question

I'm trying to install the NCAR command language suite ncl, which has some data processing tools for atmospheric scientists. Every time I get the message:

conda create -n ncl -c conda-forge ncl
.....
UnsatisfiableError: The following specifications were found to be in conflict:
    -ncl

But how can packages be in conflict when ncl is the only package listed? What does this mean?

Answer 1

From https://www.ncl.ucar.edu/Download/conda.shtml:

NOTE: There is a known issue with the NCL conda-forge package that causes an "UnsatisfiableError" in conda:

UnsatisfiableError: The following specifications were found to be in conflict: - ncl As of 2017-12-20, we have a workaround for this issue that forces a "broken" version of GDAL to be installed:

conda create -n ncl_fix -c conda-forge -c conda-forge/label/broken ncl poppler=0.52 xerces-c=3.1 gsl