Configure automatic cleanup#

conda-exec keeps cached environments for reuse. Automatic cleanup prevents old entries from accumulating when users do not run conda exec --clean manually.

Automatic cleanup is best effort. It runs only after successful tool or script executions, stays silent when nothing is removed, and never runs during --list or --clean.

See the defaults#

By default, conda-exec:

  • checks after every 50 successful runs

  • removes environments not used in 30 days

  • keeps automatic cleanup enabled

The invocation counter is stored at ~/.conda/exec/run-count, or under $CONDA_EXEC_HOME/run-count when CONDA_EXEC_HOME is set.

Disable cleanup for one shell#

Set CONDA_EXEC_AUTO_CLEAN=false:

export CONDA_EXEC_AUTO_CLEAN=false

Accepted false values are 0, false, no, and off. Accepted true values are 1, true, yes, and on.

Change the interval#

Run cleanup checks more or less often with CONDA_EXEC_CLEAN_INTERVAL. The value must be a positive integer:

export CONDA_EXEC_CLEAN_INTERVAL=10

A lower interval reclaims space sooner. A higher interval does less cache bookkeeping on machines that run conda-exec frequently.

Change the stale age#

Set how old an environment must be before automatic cleanup removes it:

export CONDA_EXEC_CLEAN_AGE=7

The value is measured in days and must be zero or greater. A value of 0 means an environment is eligible once its last-used timestamp is older than the current moment. In practice, the one-hour staleness touch debounce means recently used environments are still protected from immediate churn.

Configure persistently in .condarc#

Use conda plugin settings in .condarc for persistent configuration:

plugins:
  conda_exec_auto_clean: true
  conda_exec_clean_interval: 50
  conda_exec_clean_age: 30

The direct CONDA_EXEC_* environment variables override these settings for the current process.

Configure CI runners#

On ephemeral hosted CI runners, automatic cleanup usually does not matter because the machine is discarded. You can disable it to avoid background cache decisions during short jobs:

export CONDA_EXEC_AUTO_CLEAN=false

On self-hosted runners, keep automatic cleanup enabled and use a shorter age:

export CONDA_EXEC_CLEAN_INTERVAL=10
export CONDA_EXEC_CLEAN_AGE=7

You can still do an explicit cleanup at the end of a job:

conda exec --clean --older-than 7 --yes

Pair cleanup with a custom cache location#

If you store conda-exec caches on scratch storage, configure both the home directory and cleanup policy together:

export CONDA_EXEC_HOME=/scratch/$USER/conda-exec
export CONDA_EXEC_CLEAN_INTERVAL=20
export CONDA_EXEC_CLEAN_AGE=3

All cached environments then live under $CONDA_EXEC_HOME/envs/, and the automatic cleanup counter lives under $CONDA_EXEC_HOME/run-count.

Use manual cleanup for one-off pruning#

Automatic cleanup is intentionally conservative. Use manual cleanup when you want an immediate result:

conda exec --clean --dry-run
conda exec --clean --older-than 14
conda exec --clean --all --yes

See Manage the cache for the full cleanup workflow.

On this page
Show Source