If you need a permanent solution for keeping Python cache files out of your project directories:
Starting with Python 3.8 you can use the environment variable PYTHONPYCACHEPREFIX
to define a cache directory for Python.
From the Python docs:
If this is set, Python will write .pyc files in a mirror directory tree at this path, instead of in pycache directories within the source tree. This is equivalent to specifying the -X pycache_prefix=PATH option.
Example
If you add the following line to your ./profile
in Linux:
export PYTHONPYCACHEPREFIX="$HOME/.cache/cpython/"
Python won't create the annoying __pycache__
directories in your project directory, instead it will put all of them under ~/.cache/cpython/