allow users to set cache_directory via env-var

[woutervh]

jedi is mostly installed in a virtualenv, but uses $XDG's ~/.cache/jedi , which is a good default / fallback.

Many python tools/libs allow the user to set the cache_dir via env-var:
BLACK_CACHE_DIR
MYPY_CACHE_DIR
RUFF_CACHE_DIR
....

please support an env-var JEDI_CACHE_DIR

[davidhalter]

Why?

[woutervh]

because libraries installed in a virtualenv should not write to hardcoded externals dirs like ~/.cache/jedi.
XDG-directories are a very good default, but they should still remain default.

and setting XDG_CACHE_HOME to some project-specific dir only creates other issues.

[woutervh]

and because I want to avoid monkeypatching :)

[davidhalter]

But this does not explain when you would use this?

[woutervh]

I never use jedi directly but subdependencies in many of my projects are.

The whole idea of virtualenvs is to provide a certain isolation from the rest of the system and the ability to run many versions in parallel. Writing to $HOME runs counter to that.

[woutervh]

this does not explain when you would use this?

I'm not understanding your question.
I never want a virtualenv-installed python library to write to $HOME.

So when would I use this JEDI_CACHE_DIR? In every project that depends on jedi.

[davidhalter]

But how do you set this? Do you really set this variable by hand in every venv?

[woutervh]

I set env-vars in a .env and pip install autoread-dotenv to automatically process the .env.

see https://autoread-dotenv.readthedocs.io/ ( I wrote this package)

examples:

• https://github.com/libranet/libranet-django/blob/main/.env.example
• https://github.com/libranet/libranet-jupyter/blob/main/.env.example

[davidhalter]

Sorry, this feels not important enough for me. I'm closing.