Documentation's stable version does not match the latest release

[malmans2]

What is your issue?

Hi there,

I just noticed that the documentation's stable version (v2025.10.0) does not match the latest release (v2025.11.0).
Is that done on purpose?

[kmuehlbauer]

@malmans2 Thanks for raising this. I've checked ReadTheDocs build pipeline. The latest stable build failed for some reason. It's now rebuilding.

[kmuehlbauer]

There might be another issue. There is a "stable" branch which has been created on Oct 9, 2025. This branch contains the v2025.10.0v2025.10.2. I think the rebuild will just again take this branch.

Update: Yes, now "stable" is at v2025.10.2.

[keewis]

hmm... that one's new, I think we should just delete that branch and let RTD pick the most recent tag.

@pydata/xarray, was there a specific purpose behind that branch? If not, I'll delete the branch and add a branch ruleset to make sure it doesn't get pushed again accidentally.

[kmuehlbauer]

I can only imagine, that there was need to contain the issues with the netcdf4/h5netcdf default backend limbo in a dedicated branch to minimize interference.

And I agree, we could just delete that branch and RTD would handle it.

[keewis]

I've deleted the stable branch and added a ruleset to make sure we don't accidentally break things again.

I've also noticed that the version on the entry page for 2025.11.0 says 2025.11.1, so some more debugging is necessary.

[kmuehlbauer]

@keewis It looks like this was always there right from the time we started rendering that version information into the docs:

https://docs.xarray.dev/en/v2025.04.0/

is rendered as 2025.4.1.dev0. And all further versions with YYYY.MM.(N+1).

[mathause]

rtd updates environment.yml and docs/conf.py which makes the git index dirty.

Possible workaround: readthedocs/readthedocs.org#8201 (comment)

[keewis]

we already have that as the pre_install hook, so has to be something else that's happening. git status says there are no additional changes just before building (see https://app.readthedocs.org/projects/xray/builds/30493408/), so I'm not sure how to see what's happening.

[kmuehlbauer]

I think maybe the build goes via creating sdist first and then the build system can't figure out if it is building from a tag and adds .dev0.

I have:

python:
  install:
    - method: pip
      path: .

in .readthedocs.yml in other projects. I know we have similar in doc.yml but this runs via conda/pip. Not sure if and how this differs.

BTW, this is in conda list of the new stable build:

xarray 2025.11.1.dev0+gd43766b61.d20251128 pypi_0 pypi

Maybe someone can make something out of it.