Pip should be able to retain the build directory

[horrovac]

When a build fails, pip automatically removes all the build files. This should not happen, or there should at least be an option to instruct pip to leave it alone. In many cases the build files provide useful info for troubleshooting, which gets lost for no good reason. Currently, if I want to troubleshoot I have to go find the sources, unpack them somewhere, repeat the build process correctly to reproduce the failure - just to recreate something that was already there. I propose to automatically delete the build files ONLY if the build was successful, otherwise warn and inform the user where the build is. On next run of pip the old build could be automatically deleted or left to the user to take care of. Or: provide a flag, say, --keep-build , which would enable users to request the desirable behaviour.

[dstufft]

pip install --no-clean ?

[horrovac]

Dangit. Perhaps make this request rather "point out pip <action> --help in pip --help". May seem obvious once you know it, but obviously it's not :)

Thanks, that's exactly what I meant.

[gwideman]

... except that --no-clean doesn't seem to work, as I have now posted in issue #2060.

[qwcode]

--no-clean is working in most cases. #2060 was really a dupe of #804, which deals with installing directly from local archives.

@horrovac fair point I guess about the help. if you feel strongly about it, log another ticket for that or post a PR with the change in the help text.

closing.