# Confusion about \`tarball-ttl\` and its default value

**URL:** https://discourse.nixos.org/t/confusion-about-tarball-ttl-and-its-default-value/20998
**Category:** Help
**Created:** [August 15, 2022, 3:45am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/confusion-about-tarball-ttl-and-its-default-value/20998 "2022-08-15T03:45:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![sullyj3](https://discourse.nixos.org/user_avatar/discourse.nixos.org/sullyj3/32/4799_2.png) [@sullyj3](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/sullyj3)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2022, 3:45am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/confusion-about-tarball-ttl-and-its-default-value/20998/1 "2022-08-15T03:45:15Z")

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The documentation for [`tarball-ttl`](https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/command-ref/conf-file.html#conf-tarball-ttl) says that its default value is 4294967295. If that’s the case, why does `nix search nixpkgs hello` ever download nixpkgs? Shouldn’t it be considered fresh for the next 4294967295 seconds ~= 136 years?

Additionally, the docs mention

> Nix caches tarballs in `$XDG_CACHE_HOME/nix/tarballs` .

but

```auto
⮞ echo $XDG_CACHE_HOME

⮞ ls ~/.cache/nix/tarballs
"/home/james/.cache/nix/tarballs": No such file or directory (os error 2)

```

It looks like the directory mentioned doesn’t exist?

What am I misunderstanding here?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![NobbZ](https://discourse.nixos.org/user_avatar/discourse.nixos.org/nobbz/32/7022_2.png) [@NobbZ](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/NobbZ)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2022, 7:08pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/confusion-about-tarball-ttl-and-its-default-value/20998/2 "2022-08-17T19:08:33Z")

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The directory will be created if needed.

For the weird default, there is a ticket open (opened today)

[https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/6914](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/6914)