Add option to not create .hydra in output directory

[omry]

In some cases users are not interested in the generation of config.yaml, hydra.yaml etc.
add an option to opt out.

[exic]

I have my applications in docker containers and don't need that either, also I have to say that the whole output directory feature surprised me (especially changing my working directory), since I was only expecting it to do configuration things. So I'd vote to actually make it opt in. :-)

[omry]

Hi Jonas,
The working directory feature integrates with other core features like multi-run (where you run your app multiple time with a different configuration with a single command).
I thought hard about this, and while I understand it's surprising it's here to stay :).

Working directory can be fully customized, see this.
You can change it to . or to /tmp for example.

[exic]

Yeah I already changed it to . to keep my app's behavior, /tmp would be better to avoid "pollution" of the main dir, but then I'd probably have to change back to the get_original_cwd directory or change all the paths in my program, right?

[omry]

I missed your question, sorry.
See this for ways to access files in the original working directory.

[benjamindkilleen]

The automatic output dirs is the main reason I use this project, and I especially like the option to set the output_dir to /tmp, for debugging purposes (which I didn't think of until seeing this thread). There are many times I know something will fail, but I want to see it's output anyway. This obviously results in many useless output dirs, requiring cleanup.

I could imagine a --debug or --tmp option for hydra that sets this option would be helpful, for people who miss this issue as well as just ease of use.

[omry]

Thanks for your feedback @benjamindkilleen.
This capability is not going anywhere. However - in some scenarios automatically changing the cwd to the output directory is
getting in the way.
I am planning to make things more configurable in that area and in the long term maybe even change the default behavior to not chdir into the output directory (while still allowing it to be easily enabled).

See #910 for general plan in this area (which may yet change, I am still thinking about all this).