Post Run conda-incubator/setup-miniconda@v2 step ~150 times slower on windows-latest than on ubuntu-latest

[anmyachev]

Setup on ubuntu-latest and windows-latest:

      - uses: conda-incubator/setup-miniconda@v2
        with:
          miniforge-variant: Mambaforge
          miniforge-version: latest
          use-mamba: true
          activate-environment: modin
          environment-file: environment-dev.yml
          python-version: 3.8
          channel-priority: strict
          # we set use-only-tar-bz2 to false in order for conda to properly find new packages to be installed
          # for more info see https://github.com/conda-incubator/setup-miniconda/issues/264
          use-only-tar-bz2: false

Exact times: 8m54s vs 3s.

Is this behavior expected? Can something be done about it?

Thanks in advance.

[bollwyvl]

Yep: windows is slow and bad at doing things. In this case, it might be the "trash" (or wherever things go) is on a different device. This, and the fact that conda and mamba are pretty bad at using package caches from another machine, makes caching basically not worth it on windows, and depending on your use case, on UNIX systems, either.

Renaming (not deleting) the cache folder will sidestep that step entirely, such as running this as the very last step:

      - name: Rename conda package cache
        shell: bash
        run: mv "${CONDA_PKGS_DIR}" "${CONDA_PKGS_DIR}_do_not_cache"

A pity, of course.

[anmyachev]

Thanks @bollwyvl!