How to use Python's pip to download and keep the zipped files for a package?

Question

If I want to use the pip command to download a package (and its dependencies), but keep all of the zipped files that get downloaded (say, django-socialregistration.tar.gz) - is there a way to do that?

I've tried various command-line options, but it always seems to unpack and delete the zipfile - or it gets the zipfile, but only for the original package, not the dependencies.

Answer 1

The --download-cache option should do what you want:

pip install --download-cache="/pth/to/downloaded/files" package

However, when I tested this, the main package downloaded, saved and installed ok, but the the dependencies were saved with their full url path as the name - a bit annoying, but all the tar.gz files were there.

The --download option downloads the main package and its dependencies and does not install any of them. (Note that prior to version 1.1 the --download option did not download dependencies.)

pip install package --download="/pth/to/downloaded/files"

The pip documentation outlines using --download for fast & local installs.