Handle error with cachedir creation gracefully

lhotse/tools/env.py

@@ -1,11 +1,20 @@
+import logging
 import os
 import sys
 from pathlib import Path
 
 
-def default_tools_cachedir() -> Path:
+def default_tools_cachedir(force_mkdir: bool = False) -> Path:
     d = Path.home() / ".lhotse/tools"
-    d.mkdir(exist_ok=True, parents=True)
+    try:
+        d.mkdir(exist_ok=True, parents=True)
+    except OSError:
+        if force_mkdir:
+            raise
+        else:
+            logging.warning(
+                f"We couldn't create lhotse utilities directory: {d} (not enough space/no permissions?)"
+            )
     return d
 
 

lhotse/tools/sph2pipe.py

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 import subprocess
 import tarfile
 from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Optional
 
 from lhotse.tools.env import default_tools_cachedir
 from lhotse.utils import Pathlike, resumable_download, safe_extract
@@ -10,7 +11,7 @@
 
 
 def install_sph2pipe(
-    where: Pathlike = default_tools_cachedir(),
+    where: Optional[Pathlike] = None,
     download_from: str = SPH2PIPE_URL,
     force: bool = False,
 ) -> None:
@@ -20,6 +21,8 @@
 
     It downloads an archive and then decompresses and compiles the contents.
     """
+    if where is None:
+        where = default_tools_cachedir(force_mkdir=True)
     where = Path(where)
     # Download
     download_and_untar_sph2pipe(where, url=download_from, force_download=force)