How to clear pip cache safely?

[zaazbb]

I want to known that how to clear pip cache safely?

1, Does pip have a cmd like "apt-get clean" to remove all the cached packages to make my system image smaller?
2, Can i remove /boot/.cache/pip and ~/.cache/pip manually?(use "sudo rm -rf /boot/.cache/pip" and "sudo rm -rf ~/.cache/pip")?
3, Does pip and pip3 use the same cache dir( /boot/.cache/pip and ~/.cache/pip)?

thank you.

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

1. no
2. i beleive thats the correct list of paths for the case you outline (i presume /boot/ is the home)
3. that depends on the pip versions for each pip - if you use the distro-packaged one for both commands then they use the exactly same cache, if there is a pip version difference (like dueto virtualenv, then that may change some details if the distro version is a really old one (like pip 1.5.x)

[pradyunsg]

I'll also add that there's an idea to create a pip cache command to make cache management easier --- #4685.

[pradyunsg]

blindly deleting files or whole directories from the HTTP cache based on timestamp is safe

From #5110.

[danizen]

I think it is always safe to delete the cache, because it is a cache. Here's how I do it on Windows, which I'm constrained to use at work:

cd %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\pip
del /f /s /q cache > NUL

I do have to do this from time to time, because I will get PermissionError from Windows sometimes on accessing the cache, if too much stuff is in

[gwerbin]

Generally the obstacle to implementation is that anyone who wants to pick this up (and isn't already a Pip dev) needs to learn the internals and follow the idioms of the project. That's a nontrivial task.

[pradyunsg]

Indeed @gwerbin! I made #4685 (comment), in case someone wants to work on this and feel that's the blocker.

---

I am going to go ahead and close this in favor of #4685, as the long term resolution. @RonnyPfannschmidt's #4830 (comment) answers all questions from OP.

[lock]

This thread has been automatically locked since there has not been any recent activity after it was closed. Please open a new issue for related bugs.

[pradyunsg]

Since this shows up in pip cache remove web search, you can find more details about this here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/61762308/1931274