do I need to create a brand new dataset with a new name that inherits from the original?
Yes, you just create a new version, specify the parent one, add changes and close it.
If you later need you can squash a version (same ides as git squash). Make sense ?
although ideally i'd like to tell it exactly where to unzip it.
Ohh you can use .get_local_mutable_copy()
It will unzip it to specific folder
although ideally i'd like to tell it exactly where to unzip it. my project assumes a specific directory structure
Hi StormyOx60
Yes, by default it assumes any "file://" or local files, are accessible (which makes sense because if they are not, it will not able to download them).
there some way to force it to download the dataset to a specified location that is actually on my local machine?
You can specify a specific folder is not "local" and what it will do it will copy the zip locally and unzip it.
Is this what you are after ?
got it, thanks 🙂 another thing, i can't find a clear explanation of if/how datasets can be updated. Lets say I have some dataset already created and uploaded, but then i want to add/delete/modify some files to create "version 2" of the dataset, do I need to create a brand new dataset with a new name that inherits from the original?