How to avoid Python pip cache filling up my home directory

The default pip cache directory

The Python package manager pip uses a cache to reduce network access and to avoid having to rebuild packages that have already been built. By default this cache resides in the user's home directory in ~/.cache/pip. You can check what is your current pip cache directory with the command pip cache dir. For example:

$ pip cache dir
/users/mvsjober/.cache/pip

For example installing PyTorch will put around 3.7 GB of files into the cache, this can easily fill up your home directory quota. You can clean up your cache either by simply deleting it with rm -rf ~/.cache/pip or (more gently) by using the command pip cache purge:

$ pip cache purge
Files removed: 52

Changing the pip cache directory

To avoid problems in the future it might be a good idea to store your pip cache on the scratch file system instead. The pip cache can be set with the --cache-dir flag or, globally by setting the PIP_CACHE_DIR environment variable. For example (change the path to something appropriate for your project and user):

$ export PIP_CACHE_DIR=/scratch/<project>/<username>/pip-cache/
$ mkdir -p $PIP_CACHE_DIR

You can now test that pip has picked up this change:

$ pip cache dir
/scratch/project_2001659/mvsjober/pip-cache/

If you want to make this setting permanent for your user, you can add the export-line to the .bashrc file in your home directory.

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