# Add a remote directory without adding to the cache

**URL:** https://discuss.dvc.org/t/add-a-remote-directory-without-adding-to-the-cache/452
**Category:** Questions
**Created:** [July 22, 2020, 12:59am UTC](https://discuss.dvc.org/t/add-a-remote-directory-without-adding-to-the-cache/452 "2020-07-22T00:59:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 11

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### Author: ![jorgeorpinel](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discuss.dvc.org/jorgeorpinel/32/46_2.png) [@jorgeorpinel](https://discuss.dvc.org/u/jorgeorpinel)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://discuss.dvc.org/t/add-a-remote-directory-without-adding-to-the-cache/452/11 "2020-07-22T19:14:14Z")

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> [@nimrand](#):
>
> I think that’s _almost_ what I want, except we’d change the first `-o` parameter to `-O` to avoid copying the file into the local cache.

This is not such a big of a deal really. `import-url` will download it into the cache directly, and then link the file to the workspace (as long as it’s supported by the file system, see [this doc](https://dvc.org/doc/user-guide/large-dataset-optimization) for more info.), so there’s no duplication. `-O` is meant more for small files you want to track with Git or experimental files you don’t want to track at all.

> [@nimrand](#):
>
> But, since it declares a dependency on a remote location, how does it know when its changed other than re-downloading the files every time?

DVC checks the [eTag](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_ETag#Strong_and_weak_validation) of the original S3 data source when it needs to determine this e.g. at `dvc status`, `dvc repro`, etc. (You can use `dvc update` to bring it up to date, BTW.) But I thought your data set is not expected to ever change anyway?

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