pip uses incorrect cached package version, instead of the user-specified version

Question

I need to install psycopg2 v2.4.1 specifically. I accidentally did:

 pip install psycopg2

Instead of:

 pip install psycopg2==2.4.1

That installs 2.4.4 instead of the earlier version.

Now even after I pip uninstall psycopg2 and attempt to reinstall with the correct version, it appears that pip is re-using the cache it downloaded the first time.

How can I force pip to clear out its download cache and use the specific version I'm including in the command?

score 696 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 21 '23 at 16:56

696

If using pip 6.0 or newer, try adding the --no-cache-dir option (source).

If using pip older than pip 6.0, upgrade it with pip install -U pip.

edited Apr 21 '23 at 16:56

informatik01

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answered Mar 01 '12 at 04:26

sholsapp

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I looked in ~/.pip but its an empty directory. Your tip on --ignore-installed did the trick! – Geuis Mar 01 '12 at 04:40
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On OSX, I had to delete the pip related directories in `$TMPDIR` – Bryan P Apr 14 '13 at 08:25
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If using virtualenv you might have to delete envs/{yourenvsname}/build/{packageinquestion} dir... – Vajk Hermecz Oct 28 '13 at 19:17
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In windows: I've seen pip caching directory is in ~\AppData\Local\pip\cache – Mercury Aug 06 '15 at 14:54
[@Dr Manhattan's answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/31807659/1959808) locates the `pip` cache on the major OSs. – 0 _ Oct 30 '15 at 20:10
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You have to do `python -m pip install -U pip` on Windows. (It can't upgrade due to locking the `pip.exe` file otherwise.) – jpmc26 Aug 09 '17 at 21:25
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This answer is only partially correct. --no-cache-dir does not delete contents of cache folder. – NONONONONO Jan 03 '21 at 14:30

Dr Manhattan · Answer 2 · 2021-02-04T07:17:54.950

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Clear the cache directory where appropriate for your system

Linux and Unix

~/.cache/pip  # and it respects the XDG_CACHE_HOME directory.

OS X

~/Library/Caches/pip

Windows

%LocalAppData%\pip\Cache

UPDATE

With pip 20.1 or later, you can find the full path for your operating system easily by typing this in the command line:

pip cache dir

Example output on my Ubuntu installation:

➜ pip3 cache dir
/home/tawanda/.cache/pip

edited Feb 04 '21 at 07:17

answered Aug 04 '15 at 11:07

Dr Manhattan

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The current most-up-to-date answer (posted by a pip maintainer) is https://stackoverflow.com/a/61762308/1931274. The best approach now is `pip cache purge`. – pradyunsg May 12 '20 at 22:53
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`pip cache purge` only works on pip 20.1 according to the answer you link to. This answer seems to apply to all `pip` versions and all platforms, which would make it more generally useful but I don't know if that's the case. – Hannes Oct 06 '20 at 20:10

score 350 · Answer 3 · edited May 30 '22 at 07:15

350

With pip 20.1 or later, you can do:

pip cache remove matplotlib: removes all wheel files related to matplotlib from pip's cache.
pip cache purge: to clear all wheel files from pip's cache.
pip cache dir: to get the location of the cache.

If you want to not use the pip cache for some reason (which is a bad idea, according the official docs), your options are:

pip install --no-cache-dir <package>: install a package without using the cache, for just this run.
pip config set global.no-cache-dir false: configure pip to not use the cache "globally" (in all commands).

Some history around this question (puts on pip maintainer hat):

The specific issue of "installing the wrong version due to caching" issue mentioned in the question was fixed in pip 1.4, back in 2013!)

Fix a number of issues related to cleaning up and not reusing build directories. (#413, #709, #634, #602, #939, #865, #948)

Since pip 6.0 (back in 2014!), pip install, pip download and pip wheel commands can be told to avoid using the cache with the --no-cache-dir option. (e.g. pip install --no-cache-dir <package>)

Back then, yes, passing --no-cache-dir was the only option to avoid this bug. So... it's a bit unfortunate that this is the top search result on "pip cache remove". :)

Since pip 10.0 (back in 2018!), a pip config command was added, which can be used to configure pip to always ignore the cache. This was always possible by manually editing the relevant files, but this surfaced that ability to the command line. Details on pip's configuration mechanisms is available here.

Since pip 20.1, pip has a pip cache command to manage the contents of pip's cache.

edited May 30 '22 at 07:15

djvg

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answered May 12 '20 at 21:29

pradyunsg

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I have pip 20.1.1 but when I try pip cache purge I get next error: `ERROR: No matching packages` but I installed a lot of different packages already – Mikhail_Sam Jun 16 '20 at 10:59
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@mikhail_sam try `pip cache list` if it doesn't show anything than you don't have anything cached. – Robert Lugg Sep 03 '20 at 10:03
@RobertLugg looks like you are right! `pip cache list` returns `Nothing cached.` – Mikhail_Sam Sep 04 '20 at 14:59
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For me `pip cache purge` and `pip cache list` suggest cache is empty but `du -hs ~/.cache/pip` shows 242MB. – Carl Oct 08 '20 at 13:26
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There is a typo in `pip config set global.cache-dir false`. It should be `pip config set global.no-cache-dir false`. – Darren Jan 27 '21 at 09:20
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I get an error `ERROR: unknown command "cache" - maybe you meant "check"` – Alex Jan 04 '22 at 12:52
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@Alex You're on a verson of pip older than 20.1. – pradyunsg Jan 05 '22 at 16:05
Good point, @Darren; I've edited the answer accordingly, and have added a note on how to re-enable the cache. (Hope I got it right; as noted in [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/52029442/45375), using `false` is counter-intuitive, but it seems to work; as of (at least) v22.0.3, `true` also works and seemingly has the same effect(!); to re-enable the cache, the setting must be _unset_ (removed)). – mklement0 Feb 11 '22 at 18:31

score 109 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 20 '17 at 01:53

109

From documentation at https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/reference/pip_install.html#caching:

Starting with v6.0, pip provides an on-by-default cache which functions similarly to that of a web browser. While the cache is on by default and is designed do the right thing by default you can disable the cache and always access PyPI by utilizing the --no-cache-dir option.

edited Jan 20 '17 at 01:53

Rob Bednark

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answered Dec 27 '14 at 10:04

dafeda

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This is the right answer...the link also shows where pip stashes the cache on Linux, Windows & OS X. – jasonjwwilliams Jun 06 '15 at 00:58
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And to add, if you want to remove the "bad" object from your cache, have a look at the page to find the location of the cache file, and "find" the offending package. Linux is ~/.cache/pip, Mac is ~/Library/Caches/pip, etc. Interestingly, psycopg2 was also my problem package, but it was because the existing package was compiled for a different Postgresql library, which no longer existing on my server. – Chris Cogdon Mar 29 '16 at 00:33

Yihe · Answer 5 · 2019-10-06T14:56:04.530

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pip can install a package ignoring the cache, like this

pip --no-cache-dir install scipy

edited Oct 06 '19 at 14:56

answered Apr 08 '15 at 11:39

Yihe

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@dafeda's answer provides the same information 4 months ago – Foon Apr 08 '15 at 12:00

score 45 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 28 '20 at 20:51

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Since pip 20.1b1, which was released on 21 April 2020 and "added pip cache command for inspecting/managing pip’s wheel cache", it is possible to issue this command:

pip cache purge

The reference guide is here:
https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/reference/pip_cache/
The corresponding pull request is here.

answered Apr 28 '20 at 20:51

Bence Mélykúti

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What about **pip3**? Using pip3 i got `ERROR: unknown command "cache" - maybe you meant "check"` – Zorro Oct 16 '21 at 17:03
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Then possibly you should upgrade your pip (or pip3, which I think should be the same thing since Python 2 was phased out): `pip install --upgrade pip` or `pip3 install --upgrade pip`. – Bence Mélykúti Oct 17 '21 at 13:24
Even after updating `pip` I get the error `ERROR: unknown command "cache" - maybe you meant "check"` – Alex Jan 04 '22 at 12:52

Jace Browning · Answer 7 · 2013-05-07T21:02:45.597

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On Ubuntu, I had to delete /tmp/pip-build-root.

edited May 07 '13 at 21:02

answered May 07 '13 at 19:42

Jace Browning

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Actually /tmp/pip-build-%username_that_running_pip% – Alexey Sviridov Jan 08 '14 at 10:08
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On Ubuntu 14 it was ```/tmp/pip_build_root/``` (note underscores) – Emil Stenström Apr 25 '14 at 15:05

Rotareti · Answer 8 · 2020-10-14T19:58:48.833

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If you like to set the --no-cache-dir option by default, you can put this into pip.conf:

[global]
no-cache-dir = false

Note 1: It's confusing, but to enable the no-cache-dir option you actually have to set it to false. Pretty silly if you ask me... but that's how it is. There is a github issue to fix this.

Note 2: The location of pip.conf depends on your OS. See the documentation for more info.

edited Oct 14 '20 at 19:58

answered Aug 26 '18 at 19:08

Rotareti

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Are they really debating for 3 years now about the justification to activate an option using False instead of True ? -REALLY- ? – Kochise Apr 01 '21 at 09:15

dhobbs · Answer 9 · 2014-08-15T15:10:43.667

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I just had a similar problem and found that the only way to get pip to upgrade the package was to delete the $PWD/build (%CD%\build on Windows) directory that might have been left over from a previously unfinished install or a previous version of pip (it now deletes the build directories after a successful install).

edited Aug 15 '14 at 15:10

answered Apr 10 '12 at 02:16

dhobbs

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score 8 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 27 '15 at 23:13

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On archlinux pip cache is located at ~/.cache/pip, I could solve my issue by removing the http folder inside it.

answered Apr 27 '15 at 23:13

eneepo

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score 7 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 06 '15 at 06:09

7

On my mac I had to remove the cache directory ~/Library/Caches/pip/

answered Jul 06 '15 at 06:09

matlads

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score 6 · Answer 12 · answered Feb 07 '21 at 06:23

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Simply

rm -d -r "$(pip cache dir)"

answered Feb 07 '21 at 06:23

takelushi

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score 4 · Answer 13 · answered May 07 '13 at 21:04

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On Windows 7, I had to delete %HOMEPATH%/pip.

answered May 07 '13 at 21:04

Jace Browning

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score 3 · Answer 14 · answered Dec 11 '13 at 15:40

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If using virtualenv, look for the build directory under your environments root.

answered Dec 11 '13 at 15:40

Vajk Hermecz

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score 3 · Answer 15 · answered Aug 12 '14 at 08:59

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I had to delete %TEMP%\pip-build On Windows 7

answered Aug 12 '14 at 08:59

Mikhail M

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Thanks+1. I'm also using Windows 7 and found the folder under my %TEMP%\pip folder. The %TEMP% is defined in your environmental variables if anyone is unsure. – Simon Feb 03 '15 at 06:51

score 3 · Answer 16 · answered May 08 '21 at 20:51

(pyvenv.d) jdoe$ pip --version       # pip version for this answer (or newer).
pip 21.1.1

(pyvenv.d) jdoe$ pip cache --help    # Review all options available to you.

(pyvenv.d) jdoe$ pip cache dir       # Cache-directory for pip(1).
/home/jdoe/.cache/pip

(pyvenv.d) jdoe$ pip cache purge     # Purge cache-directory (by example).
Files removed: 621                   # If cache-directory is already empty, the
                                     # output will be: "ERROR: No matching packages".

score 2 · Answer 17 · edited Feb 07 '14 at 19:28

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On Mac OS (Mavericks), I had to delete /tmp/pip-build/

edited Feb 07 '14 at 19:28

Uyghur Lives Matter

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answered Feb 07 '14 at 19:11

Marcelo Soares

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score 0 · Answer 18 · answered May 28 '20 at 17:41

A better way to do it is to delete the cache and rebuild it. In this way, if you install it again for other virtualenv, it will use the cache instead of building every time when you install it.

For example, when you install it, it will say it uses cached wheel,

Processing <some_prefix>/Library/Caches/pip/wheels/d0/c4/e4/e49fd07bca8dda00dd6b4bbc606aa05a25aacb00d45747a47a/horovod-0.19.3-cp37-cp37m-macosx_10_9_x86_64.wh

Just delete that one and restart your install.

score -2 · Answer 19 · edited Aug 09 '17 at 14:49

-2

(...) it appears that pip is re-using the cache (...)

I'm pretty sure that's not what's happening. Pip used to (wrongly) reuse build directory not cache. This was fixed in version 1.4 of pip which was released on 2013-07-23.

edited Aug 09 '17 at 14:49

Cody Gray - on strike

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answered Feb 15 '16 at 11:20

Piotr Dobrogost

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pip uses incorrect cached package version, instead of the user-specified version

19 Answers19

UPDATE

Linked