Installing models in Anaconda in Windows 7 fails with a linking error

[jganseman]

Installing models for RASA in a conda environment in Windows, according to the docs that can be found on https://spacy.io/usage/models and http://nlu.rasa.ai/installation.html#setting-up-rasa-nlu , fails with a linking error:

`
(rasatests) C:\Users\jg>python -m spacy download en_core_web_md
Collecting https://github.com/explosion/spacy-models/releases/download/en_core_web_md-2.0.0/en_core_web_md-2.0.0.tar.gz
Downloading https://github.com/explosion/spacy-models/releases/download/en_core_web_md-2.0.0/en_core_web_md-2.0.0.tar.gz (120.8MB)
100% |¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦| 120.9MB 11.4MB/s
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): en-core-web-md==2.0.0 from https://github.com/explosion/spacy-models/releases/download/en_core_web_md-2.0.0/en_core_web_md-2.0.0.tar.gz in c:\users\jg\appdata\local\continuum\anaconda3\envs\rasatests\lib\site-packages

Error: Couldn't link model to 'en_core_web_md'
Creating a symlink in spacy/data failed. Make sure you have the required
permissions and try re-running the command as admin, or use a
virtualenv. You can still import the model as a module and call its
load() method, or create the symlink manually.

C:\Users\jg\AppData\Local\Continuum\anaconda3\envs\rasatests\lib\site-packages\en_core_web_md
-->
C:\Users\jg\AppData\Local\Continuum\anaconda3\envs\rasatests\lib\site-packages\spacy\data\en_core_web_md

Download successful but linking failed
Creating a shortcut link for 'en' didn't work (maybe you don't have
admin permissions?), but you can still load the model via its full
package name:

nlp = spacy.load('en_core_web_md')

`

Maybe the documentation should include a few lines about how to run as administrator? I'll see if I can figure it out and maybe contribute!

Your Environment

• Operating System: Windows-7-6.1.7601-SP1
• Python Version Used: 3.6.4
• spaCy Version Used: 2.0.7
• Environment Information: using Anaconda (conda 4.4.8, Anaconda Navigator 1.6.12)

[ines]

I don't use Windows much, but I usually just right-click on the terminal app and select "Run as administrator", as described here. But maybe there's a more elegant way? In any case, I agree, I think the docs could at least link to a solution or thread on the topic, both on the models page and the troubleshooting guide.

[jganseman]

It turns out that the solution here is to run Anaconda Navigator/Shell as admin (rightclick, ''Run As Administrator''). From within non-admin Anaconda I see no easy way to fire up an environment with admin credentials.

It also seems that care needs to be taken to only do the model download and linking in the admin environment (i.e. don't redo pip install rasa_core in admin mode). The rest of the tutorial can be completed in non-admin mode (albeit that a few deprecation warnings about sklearn and tensorflow pop up too, see image below:)

[ines]

Thanks for updating! I've added more details on this to the model download documentation (see ab33e27).

[lock]

This thread has been automatically locked since there has not been any recent activity after it was closed. Please open a new issue for related bugs.