Change nltk.download() path directory from default ~/ntlk_data

Question:

I was trying to download/update python nltk packages on a computing server and it returned this [Errno 122] Disk quota exceeded: error.

Specifically:

[nltk_data] Downloading package stop words to /home/sh2264/nltk_data...
[nltk_data] Error downloading u'stopwords' from
[nltk_data] <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nltk/nltk_data/gh-
[nltk_data] pages/packages/corpora/stopwords.zip>: [Errno 122]
[nltk_data] Disk quota exceeded:
[nltk_data] u'/home/sh2264/nltk_data/corpora/stopwords.zip
False

How could I change the entire path for nltk packages, and what other changes should I make to ensure errorless loading of nltk?

Asked By: shenglih

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Source

Answers:

According to the documentation:

By default, packages are installed in either a system-wide directory (if Python has sufficient access to write to it); or in the current user’s home directory. However, the download_dir argument may be used to specify a different installation target, if desired.

To specify the download directory, use for example:

nltk.download('treebank', download_dir='/mnt/data/treebank')
Answered By: Ortomala Lokni

This can be configured both by command-line (nltk.download(..., download_dir=) or by GUI. Bizarrely nltk seems to totally ignore its own environment variable NLTK_DATA and default its download directories to a standard set of five paths, regardless whether NLTK_DATA is defined and where it points, and regardless whether nltk’s five default dirs even exist on the machine or architecture(!). Some of that is documented in Installing NLTK Data, although it’s incomplete and kinda buried; reproduced below with much clearer formatting:

Command line installation

The downloader will search for an existing nltk_data directory to
install NLTK data. If one does not exist it will attempt to create one
in a central location (when using an administrator account) or
otherwise in the user’s filespace. If necessary, run the download
command from an administrator account, or using sudo. The recommended
system location is:

  • C:nltk_data (Windows) ;
  • /usr/local/share/nltk_data (Mac) and
  • /usr/share/nltk_data (Unix).

You can use the -d flag to specify a different location (but if you do this, be sure to set the NLTK_DATA environment variable accordingly).

  • Run the command python -m nltk.downloader all

  • To ensure central installation, run the command: sudo python -m nltk.downloader -d /usr/local/share/nltk_data all

  • But really they should say: sudo python -m nltk.downloader -d $NLTK_DATA all

Now as to what recommended path NLTK_DATA should use, nltk doesn’t really give any proper guidance, but it should be a generic standalone path not under any install tree (so not under <python-install-directory>/lib/site-packages) or any user dir. Hence, /usr/local/share, /opt/share or similar. On MacOS 10.7+, /usr and thus /usr/local/ these days are hidden by default, so /opt/share may well be a better choice. Or do chflags nohidden /usr/local/share.

Answered By: smci

NLTK Download GUI Screeshot (Windows)

NLTK GUI can be started from PyCharm Community Edition Python console too.
Just issue 2 commands:

1) import nltk

2) nltk.download_gui()

but nltk GUI will not work if you are behind a proxy server for that at the console you must first set proxy setting

SET HTTP_PROXY=proxy.mycompany.com:8080

and then it will work.

Answered By: Rahul Saini

You may also use nltk.download_shell() and follow the interactive steps as shown below.

enter image description here

Also use nltk.data.path.append('/your/new/data/directory/path') to instruct nltk to to load data from new data path.

Answered By: webstruck

This would be the solution purely from shell commands (no python code).

First use this command line to download to a custom directory:

python -m nltk.downloader -d /my/path/nltk_data all

And then at runtime for nltk to find the custom directory, set the environment variable:

export NLTK_DATA=/my/path/nltk_data
Answered By: Jose Duarte

tl;dr

If the environment variable NLTK_DATA is set and the directory exists, it is used as default download directory.

Explanation

In the data module the environment variable NLTK_DATA is used as first entry when filling the data search path.

If download_dir is not specified as parameter when calling nltk.download() the method default_download_dir() determines the download directory.

Example: Create new default data directory

One would like to use /usr/local/share/nltk_data as default data directory.

Create the data directory and add NLTK_DATA to your shell profile.

$ mkdir /usr/local/share/nltk_data
$ echo "export NLTK_DATA=/usr/local/share/nltk_data" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc
$ echo $NLTK_DATA
/usr/local/share/nltk_data

Now nltk uses /usr/local/share/nltk_data as defined in NLTK_DATA.

$ python
Python 3.10.6 (main, Sep  5 2022, 11:08:58) [Clang 11.0.0 (clang-1100.0.33.17)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import nltk
>>> nltk.download('gutenberg')
[nltk_data] Downloading package gutenberg to
[nltk_data]     /usr/local/share/nltk_data...
[nltk_data]   Unzipping corpora/gutenberg.zip.
True

Example: Switch default data directory

The current data directory is ~/nltk_data and one would like to use the directory /usr/local/share/nltk_data instead.

Move the data directory and add NLTK_DATA to your shell profile.

$ mv ~/nltk_data /usr/local/share/nltk_data
$ echo "export NLTK_DATA=/usr/local/share/nltk_data" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc
$ echo $NLTK_DATA
/usr/local/share/nltk_data

Now nltk uses /usr/local/share/nltk_data as defined in NLTK_DATA.

$ python
Python 3.10.6 (main, Sep  5 2022, 11:08:58) [Clang 11.0.0 (clang-1100.0.33.17)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import nltk
>>> nltk.download('gutenberg')
[nltk_data] Downloading package gutenberg to
[nltk_data]     /usr/local/share/nltk_data...
[nltk_data]   Package gutenberg is already up-to-date!
True
Answered By: Stefan Schmidt