Cannot open config file in simple WebSupport example

[shimizukawa]

Hello, I was trying the WebSupport in Sphinx, but I hit what it looks like a simple blocking bug. I prepared this simple build-docs.py script:

#!python
#!/usr/bin/env python
from sphinx.websupport import WebSupport
support = WebSupport(srcdir="docs", staticdir="static",
        builddir=".build", search="whoosh",
        docroot="docs", staticroot="static")
support.build()

but when I run it, I get this:

  File "[...]/lib/python2.7/site-packages/sphinx/config.py", line 199, in __init__
    f = open(config_file, 'rbU')
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'docs/conf.py'

It looks like the culprit is in sphinx/config.py:

#!python
       config = {}
        if dirname is not None:
            config_file = path.join(dirname, filename)
            config['__file__'] = config_file
            config['tags'] = tags
            olddir = os.getcwd()
            try:
                # we promise to have the config dir as current dir while the
                # config file is executed
                os.chdir(dirname)
                # get config source -- 'b' is a no-op under 2.x, while 'U' is
                # ignored under 3.x (but 3.x compile() accepts \r\n newlines)
                f = open(config_file, 'rbU')

Since it chdir inside the directory, config_file cannot work since it contains dirname. It has to be changed to filename.

I've attached a patch.

---

• Bitbucket: https://bitbucket.org/birkenfeld/sphinx/issue/1055
• Originally reported by: Giovanni Bajo
• Originally created at: 2012-12-14T01:06:28.827

[shimizukawa]

From Giovanni Bajo on 2012-12-14 00:26:14+00:00

I've also added a https://bitbucket.org/birkenfeld/sphinx/pull-request/93.

[shimizukawa]

From Takayuki Shimizukawa on 2012-12-14 01:13:03+00:00

I think you need to specify absolute-path to srcdir instead of relative-path.

Web application script (Flask in reference) that using WebSupport will be invoked from Apache, ngingx or other web server process. In this case, you should use the absolute path instead of relative-path.

[shimizukawa]

From Giovanni Bajo on 2012-12-14 08:12:18+00:00

It would be impossible to specify an absolute path in my setup, the application code gets relocated to different servers. But WebSupport could call absname() at any point, if it feels like it. In alternative, my patch fixes the issue.

[shimizukawa]

From Takayuki Shimizukawa on 2012-12-17 09:23:19+00:00

How is it by this method?

from sphinx.websupport import WebSupport
import os
BASEDIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
bjoin = lambda *p: os.path.join(BASEDIR, *p)

support = WebSupport(srcdir=bjoin("docs"), staticdir=bjoin("static"), ...

[shimizukawa]

From Georg Brandl on 2012-12-30 17:03:10+00:00

Closes #1055: add changelog entry for 7228c0534f0c.

→ <>