I've thought about doing it that way also initially, but this still removes e.g. the .git I have there - and I think the idea with the supporting files was to only create them initially (for a new cache base dir), and then do not mess with them, unless the cache root gets created again.
Therefore I think "clearing the cache" should only clear the cache (contents/data), not remove the base directory and everything in it (above the cache data itself).
rm -rf .pytest-cache can be used easily if you want to remove everything really.

To be clear: this fixes the initial / reported issue, but from my point of view there's another ("it should only remove the cache contents"), which I've tried to address also then in my patch.

I've thought about doing it that way also initially, but this still removes e.g. the .git I have there

Sorry, which .git you mean? The .pytest_cache directory as far as I concerned is owned by pytest, so users shouldn't really be putting custom files/directories there, if that's the case.

it should only remove the cache contents"

I see and it is really not that complicated, but on the other hand I think most people expect --clear-cache to wipe everything (and it is simpler). Plus by doing that we ensure users get updated files when that applies.

As I said, if even with above points you still think we should only wipe d and v directories, I won't discuss further and will update the PR. 😁

I've thought about doing it that way also initially, but this still removes e.g. the .git I have there

Sorry, which .git you mean? The .pytest_cache directory as far as I concerned is owned by pytest, so users shouldn't really be putting custom files/directories there, if that's the case.

I've put it into a Git repo to e.g. stash last-failed state etc.. IIRC I've posted a script to the mailing-list for this initially. It also helps with debugging/seeing issues with e.g. the lf plugin.

Plus by doing that we ensure users get updated files when that applies.

That's a good point, but it also renoves e.g. a customized .gitignore (imaginary use case probably only).

I'd prefer it to only remove the contents still. But then those could be put into constants / a list maybe (using "d" and "v" is not very descriptive, also where it is used).

I'd prefer it to only remove the contents still.

OK, done. 👍

You might want to state this explicitly in the changelog also (the second fix/improvement).