Cannot pip install torch due to /tmp/ directory full of old 'pip-install' and 'pip-unpack' packages

Question

Hi,

While working with the Jupyter notebook interface on Data Lab, I'm unable to fully install a package from Github with dependencies to my user directory, because I keep getting an error around installation of torch:

ERROR: Could not install packages due to an OSError: [Errno 28] No space left on device

Further investigation points to temp files unable to be added to a full /tmp directory during torch installation, causing the error. My user directory has plenty of space so I don't think the error is related to storage there. I've tried clearing the /tmp directory and overwriting files with blank files to clear space, but I don't have permissions to do either. Most of the folders in /tmp are remnants from unpacking/ installing packages from GitHub, and are unnecessary to keep. How do I go about clearing the /tmp directory so I can install packages again? Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi, we suspect the issue is will large intermediate downloads during the installation process. You can try this:

%%bash
TMPDIR=/home/jail/temp pip install torch

in a cell to install your packages.

BTW, since you are installing torch: note that the NB server is CPU-only, there are no GPUs. And we ask that you don't occupy the CPUs for very long runs please.

Best,
Robert