Use mamba under a feature flag to create conda environments

`mamba` is a a fast drop-in replacement for the conda command-line
utility, in C++.

I'm adding a feature flag so we can test it out in selective projects
that are failing over and over again because of OOM when solving
dependencies, even if they have just one, but they are adding
conda-forge as channel.

Author: humitos

docs/guides/feature-flags.rst

@@ -25,6 +25,18 @@ In case you prefer to use the latest ``conda`` version available, this is the fl
 Makes Read the Docs to install all the requirements at once on ``conda create`` step.
 This helps users to pin dependencies on conda and to improve build time.
 
+``CONDA_USES_MAMBA``: :featureflags:`CONDA_USES_MAMBA`
+
+``conda`` solver consumes 1Gb minimum when installing any package using ``conda-forge`` channel.
+This seems to be `a known issue`_ due conda forge has so many packages on it, among others.
+Using this feature flag allows you to use mamba_ instead of ``conda`` to create the environment
+and install the dependencies.
+``mamba`` is a drop-in replacement for conda that it's much faster and also
+reduces considerably the amount of memory required to solve the dependencies.
+
+.. _mamba: https://quantstack.net/mamba.html
+.. _a known issue: https://www.anaconda.com/understanding-and-improving-condas-performance/
+
 ``DONT_OVERWRITE_SPHINX_CONTEXT``: :featureflags:`DONT_OVERWRITE_SPHINX_CONTEXT`
 
 ``DONT_SHALLOW_CLONE``: :featureflags:`DONT_SHALLOW_CLONE`
@@ -35,4 +47,4 @@ e.g. python-reno release notes manager is known to do that
 
 ``USE_TESTING_BUILD_IMAGE``: :featureflags:`USE_TESTING_BUILD_IMAGE`
 
-``EXTERNAL_VERSION_BUILD``: :featureflags:`EXTERNAL_VERSION_BUILD`
+``EXTERNAL_VERSION_BUILD``: :featureflags:`EXTERNAL_VERSION_BUILD`

readthedocs/doc_builder/python_environments.py

@@ -438,6 +438,23 @@ class Conda(PythonEnvironment):
     def venv_path(self):
         return os.path.join(self.project.doc_path, 'conda', self.version.slug)
 
+    def conda_bin_name(self):
+        """
+        Decide whether use ``mamba`` or ``conda`` to create the environment.
+
+        Return ``mamba`` if the project has ``CONDA_USES_MAMBA`` feature and
+        ``conda`` otherwise. This will be the executable name to be used when
+        creating the conda environment.
+
+        ``mamba`` is really fast to solve dependencies and download channel
+        metadata on startup.
+
+        See https://github.com/QuantStack/mamba
+        """
+        if self.project.has_feature(Feature.CONDA_USES_MAMBA):
+            return 'mamba'
+        return 'conda'
+
     def _update_conda_startup(self):
         """
         Update ``conda`` before use it for the first time.
@@ -446,7 +463,7 @@ def _update_conda_startup(self):
         independently the version of Miniconda that it has installed.
         """
         self.build_env.run(
-            'conda',
+            self.conda_bin_name(),
             'update',
             '--yes',
             '--quiet',
@@ -456,6 +473,18 @@ def _update_conda_startup(self):
             cwd=self.checkout_path,
         )
 
+    def _install_mamba(self):
+        self.build_env.run(
+            'conda',
+            'install',
+            '--yes',
+            '--quiet',
+            '--name=base',
+            '--channel=conda-forge',
+            'mamba',
+            cwd=self.checkout_path,
+        )
+
     def setup_base(self):
         conda_env_path = os.path.join(self.project.doc_path, 'conda')
         version_path = os.path.join(conda_env_path, self.version.slug)
@@ -479,8 +508,11 @@ def setup_base(self):
             self._append_core_requirements()
             self._show_environment_yaml()
 
+        if self.project.has_feature(Feature.CONDA_USES_MAMBA):
+            self._install_mamba()
+
         self.build_env.run(
-            'conda',
+            self.conda_bin_name(),
             'env',
             'create',
             '--quiet',
@@ -566,6 +598,9 @@ def _get_core_requirements(self):
             'pillow',
         ]
 
+        if self.project.has_feature(Feature.CONDA_USES_MAMBA):
+            conda_requirements.append('pip')
+
         # Install pip-only things.
         pip_requirements = [
             'recommonmark',
@@ -592,7 +627,7 @@ def install_core_requirements(self):
         # Install requirements via ``conda install`` command if they were
         # not appended to the ``environment.yml`` file.
         cmd = [
-            'conda',
+            self.conda_bin_name(),
             'install',
             '--yes',
             '--quiet',

readthedocs/projects/models.py

@@ -1511,6 +1511,7 @@ def add_features(sender, **kwargs):
     EXTERNAL_VERSION_BUILD = 'external_version_build'
     UPDATE_CONDA_STARTUP = 'update_conda_startup'
     CONDA_APPEND_CORE_REQUIREMENTS = 'conda_append_core_requirements'
+    CONDA_USES_MAMBA = 'conda_uses_mamba'
     ALL_VERSIONS_IN_HTML_CONTEXT = 'all_versions_in_html_context'
     SKIP_SYNC_TAGS = 'skip_sync_tags'
     SKIP_SYNC_BRANCHES = 'skip_sync_branches'
@@ -1566,6 +1567,10 @@ def add_features(sender, **kwargs):
             CONDA_APPEND_CORE_REQUIREMENTS,
             _('Append Read the Docs core requirements to environment.yml file'),
         ),
+        (
+            CONDA_USES_MAMBA,
+            _('Uses mamba binary instead of conda to create the environment'),
+        ),
         (
             ALL_VERSIONS_IN_HTML_CONTEXT,
             _(