Paths in AWS lambda with Python NLTK

Question

I\'m encountering problems with the NLTK package in AWS Lambda. However I believe the issue is related more to path configurations in Lambda being incorrect. NLTK is having

Answer 1

So I've found the answer to this question. After a couple of days messing around I've finally figured it out. The data.py file in the nltk folder needs to be modified as follows. Basically remove the /usr/... paths and add in the folder that Lambda executes from /var/task/ and ensure that your nltk_data folder is in the root of your execution zip.

Not sure why, but using the inline nltk.data.path.append() method does not work with AWS Lambda and the data.py file needs to be modified directly.

else:
    # Common locations on UNIX & OS X:
    path += [
        str('/var/task/nltk_data')
        #str('/usr/share/nltk_data'),
        #str('/usr/local/share/nltk_data'),
        #str('/usr/lib/nltk_data'),
        #str('/usr/local/lib/nltk_data')
    ]