sphinx and python version collision

[ghost]

Some distributions (at least Arch Linux) have Python3 as default Python version, while Python2 scripts have suffix '2' in scripts' names. The plugin assumes Python2 to be the default Python resulting in error on documents generation.

Source: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!folder/last/akka-user/gBRZKTTZl9A

[jsuereth]

Sorry, I still haven't found a good solution for this IMHO. Do you have a suggestion for a sane way to handle the problem? It's been 3 months and I haven't had any sudden inspiration. I'd like to resovle this soon, since as folks upgrade linux, more and more will use python3 by default....

[gaydenko]

As far as it's a matter of concrete distributions, I'm not sure there is smart way to resolve the issue. Why don't start with the simples way? I mean just to

• form a list of probable script's names starting with List("sphinx-build2", "sphinx-build"),
• probe script existence in the list order at runtime and
• will add other names in the middle of the list would other affected users supply other names.

Of course, pythoners probably have to suggest something smarter :)

P.S. I'm the reporter. Sorry, I accidentally was signed in with another login at that reporting moment.

[dscleaver]

That was going to be my suggestion as well. The other simple option is to make the command a setting, but that would require different users on a project to potentially have to change it before generating the site.

[jsuereth]

Yeah, I think the best experience is to auto-detect it if we can, and "do
the right thing". People don't really wnat to customize this for their
computer.

[nightkr]

Most linux distributions, even those that still default /usr/bin/python to Python 2.x have a /usr/bin/python2 binary as well to explicitly request 2.x (and the opposite applies for 3.x as well). In my opinion, start off trying python2, and if that doesn't work, fall back to python with a warning. Windows is a special case, but there you could change the warning to happen if it isn't in a directory which's name starts with Python2.

[2m]

I think this was not sbt-site problem, but a problem in Akka python build code which uses custom directive when building docs.

I fixed the same error as reported by the OP in akka/akka#16135. Now it runs fine under ArchLinux with Python3 and under Ubuntu with Python 2.