hub-cache.adoc

Huggingface Hub and cache

Table of Contents

• Space savings
• What are these files
• Default locations
• How to move them
  • Step 1. Close applications and stop scripts
  • Step 2. Set HF_HOME environment variable
  • Step 3. Move the files
• Official documentation

Space savings

• Depending on use, it can be anywhere from a couple of gigabytes, to dozens of gigabytes (in my case: 29GB).

What are these files

Cached pretrained models, tokens and data sets used in locally installed AI tools and Python scripts.

Default locations

• ~/.cache/huggingface - Huggingface Hub home directory.

How to move them

Step 1. Close applications and stop scripts

If you are running any application or a Python script which might be using Huggingface cache (for example: StableDiffusion, Tortoise TTS,…​), stop these applications and/or scripts before proceeding.

Step 2. Set HF_HOME environment variable

Set the HF_HOME environment variable to a location which you want Huggingface to store Hub data to.

Alternatively, you can run the following PowerShell script to set the HF_HOME environment variable: hfHubSetCacheEnvVar.ps1

pwsh .\hfHubSetCacheEnvVar.ps1

Step 3. Move the files

Once HF_HOME environment variable is set, you can move the files to the new directory.

Official documentation

• Huggingface Hub - Environment variables