Changes/Sphinx4

[DRAFT] 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: 2021-05-27
• 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 [here comes the list]

Benefit to Fedora

Fedora is the leading environment for Python development and will include the newest and greatest Sphinx for users and packagers.

Scope

• Proposal owners:

• Other developers:

• Release engineering: #Releng issue number

• Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)

• Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

• Alignment with Objectives:

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? N/A (not a System Wide Change), Yes/No

Documentation

N/A (not a System Wide Change)