diff --git a/.github/workflows/autotools.yml b/.github/workflows/autotools.yml
index 3cdc6494adf..11c4e92d43a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/autotools.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/autotools.yml
@@ -22,12 +22,19 @@ jobs:
     - name: Installs
       run: |
         sudo apt-get install netcdf-bin libnetcdf-dev doxygen graphviz wget gfortran libjpeg-dev libz-dev openmpi-bin libopenmpi-dev 
+    - name: cache-pnetcdf
+      id: cache-pnetcdf
+      uses: actions/cache@v2
+      with:
+        path: ~/pnetcdf
+        key: pnetcdf-${{ runner.os }}-1.11.0
 
-    - name: pnetcdf build
+    - name: build-pnetcdf
+      if: steps.cache-pnetcdf.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
       run: |
-        wget https://parallel-netcdf.github.io/Release/pnetcdf-1.11.0.tar.gz 
+        set -x
+        wget https://parallel-netcdf.github.io/Release/pnetcdf-1.11.0.tar.gz &> /dev/null
         tar -xzvf pnetcdf-1.11.0.tar.gz
-        ls -l
         pushd pnetcdf-1.11.0
         ./configure --prefix=/home/runner/pnetcdf --enable-shared --disable-cxx
         make