Configuring Temporary File Locations#

Conda creates various temporary files during its operations. You can control where these temporary files are stored using standard operating system environment variables.

Why configure temporary file locations?#

You may need to configure temporary file locations when:

  • Default temporary directories have limited disk space

  • Default locations are read-only (common in containers, HPC environments, or restrictive permissions)

  • Compliance requirements mandate temporary files be stored in specific locations

  • Performance considerations (e.g., using faster storage for temporary operations)

  • Working in multi-user or shared computing environments

Environment variables#

Conda respects the standard operating system environment variables for temporary file locations. Python's tempfile module (specifically tempfile.gettempdir()), which conda uses internally, checks these variables in the following order on all platforms:

  1. TMPDIR

  2. TEMP

  3. TMP

If none of these environment variables are set, Python falls back to platform-specific default locations:

  • Windows: C:\TEMP, C:\TMP, \TEMP, \TMP (in that order)

  • Unix/Linux/macOS: /tmp, /var/tmp, /usr/tmp (in that order)

  • All platforms: As a last resort, the current working directory

Setting temporary directories#

Unix/Linux/macOS:

# For current session
export TMPDIR=/path/to/writable/tmp
mkdir -p $TMPDIR

# To make permanent, add to ~/.bashrc or equivalent shell profile file
echo 'export TMPDIR=/path/to/writable/tmp' >> ~/.bashrc

# For a single command
TMPDIR=/path/to/writable/tmp conda install package_name

Windows:

REM For current session (Command Prompt)
set TEMP=C:\path\to\writable\tmp
md %TEMP%

# For current session (PowerShell)
$env:TEMP = "C:\path\to\writable\tmp"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $env:TEMP -Force

# To make permanent, use the System Properties dialog:
# - Edit the system environment variables or
# - Edit environment variables for your account

Container/Docker environments:

In your Dockerfile or docker-compose.yml:

FROM continuumio/miniconda3

# Set temporary directory to a writable location with more space
ENV TMPDIR=/opt/conda/tmp
RUN mkdir -p /opt/conda/tmp

Verifying temporary directory location#

To check where conda will create temporary files, use conda info:

conda info

Look for the temporary directory line in the output, which shows the currently configured temporary directory location.

Alternatively, you can check directly with Python:

python -c "import tempfile; print(tempfile.gettempdir())"

This will show you the directory that Python (and therefore conda) will use for temporary files.

See also#