Explicit File vs Environment.yml: Which Conda Restore Guarantees Exact Artifacts?

Goal

Restore a broken conda environment after disk loss while ensuring reproducibility.

Constraints

Need bit‑for‑bit exactness on the same platform, but also consider portability to a different OS/arch.

Uncertainty

The conda documentation lists two restore paths: conda list --explicit followed by conda create --file, and conda env export/conda env create -f environment.yml. Each has trade‑offs around channel URLs, build strings, solver resolution, and platform dependency.

Questions

• When restoring to a different platform, does the explicit file reliably reinstall the same binaries, or does it fail due to missing builds?
• Does the environment.yml approach guarantee that the exact same dependency tree is recreated, or can the solver introduce newer compatible versions?
• Which method provides a verifiable checksum or hash that can be used to confirm a successful, identical restore?