< Changes
Update Sphinx to 4.0.x
Summary
The version 4.0.x of Sphinx, popular Python documentation generator and framework, has been released in May 2021. It brings many bug fixes, new features including breaking changes and removes long deprecated functions.
Package maintainers whose packages will stop building with the Sphinx 4.0.x have these options:
- they switch to Sphinx 4.0.x for building their documentation,
- they stop building documentation,
- they create compat package to extend the lifespan of Sphinx 3.x features. Python-maint team can assist with creating the compat package, however we don't like this solution and discourage from doing so.
Owner
- Name: Karolina Surma
- Email: ksurma@redhat.com
Current status
- Targeted release: Fedora Linux 35
- Last updated: 2021-06-01
- FESCo issue: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
- Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
- Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
Detailed Description
Many Fedora packages build-depend on python-sphinx, a popular documentation framework. It was assessed that around 60 packages stop building with the Sphinx 4.0.2. The common reasons for failures are:
- they use long-deprecated functions which have been removed in Sphinx 4.0.2,
- they depend on components which explicitly require older Sphinx versions.
The change affects these packages (bear in mind, the list may not be complete - some packages which don't build because of the other issues, may be affected also with this change):
- ansible
- ara
- arbor
- borgbackup
- botan
- buildstream
- condor
- copr-keygen
- extra-cmake-modules
- gcc
- ghc
- gtksourceview4
- kea
- krb5
- libcomps
- libgpuarray
- llvm
- Mayavi
- paraview
- php-opencloud-openstack
- pipenv
- pki-core
- py4j
- python3-docs
- python-anyio
- python-breathe
- python-BTrees
- python-diff-cover
- python-djvulibre
- python-f5-sdk
- python-flit
- python-glue
- python-h2
- python-libpysal
- python-listparser
- python-novaclient
- python-openstackclient
- python-patsy
- python-persistent
- python-pip
- python-pkginfo
- python-pycryptodomex
- python-pynetdicom
- python-pysam
- python-pyswarms
- python-rjsmin
- python-ruffus
- python-sphinxcontrib-asyncio
- python-sphinxcontrib-trio
- python-sphinx-notfound-page
- python-texext
- python-txtorcon
- python-whoosh
- python-zarr
- rebase-helper
- tortoisehg
- waiverdb
- xeus
- xtl
As said in the summary, packages will either switch to Sphinx 4.0.x or stop building the docs. Change owners can provide guidance and help, yet they cannot be expected to fix all the packages.
Benefit to Fedora
Fedora is the leading environment for Python development and will include the newest and greatest Sphinx for users and packagers. They will benefit from its newest functions to build better documentation.
Scope
- Proposal owners: update python-sphinx to 4.0.x, provide help
- Other developers: the update of affected packages can be tested using copr repository where the testing version of Sphinx 4.0.2 has been built.
- Release engineering: N/A
- Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)
- Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
- Alignment with Objectives: No
Upgrade/compatibility impact
There is a clean upgrade path from current version to 4.0.x. Fedora users using RPM-packaged Sphinx will use Sphinx 4.0.x by default.
How To Test
- No special hardware is needed.
- Find the package you want to update in this copr repository and check the build logs to determine the fail cause.
- Work with the upstream to resolve the issue or drop the documentation from the package.
- When updating the package, you can test it using the same copr repository where the proposed version of Sphinx 4.0.2 has been built.
- Let us know if something doesn't work as it should.
User Experience
Already covered by sections above.
Dependencies
Already covered in Detailed Description
Contingency Plan
- Contingency mechanism: (What to do? Who will do it?) N/A (not a System Wide Change)
- Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
- Blocks release? No
Documentation
This page is the documentation for Fedora impact.
Release Notes
N/A