This RFC proposes adding an interactive mode to the sphinx-pre-install script
to guide users through installing missing dependencies for setting up sphinx.
The goal is to enhance usability by prompting users to execute distro-specific
commands, improving the experience for developers setting up the documentation
builds.
Based on feedback from the initial RFC, this series restarts fresh to outline
the planned approach. The feature will take 4 patches to completely implement,
each addressing a different section of the feature.
Planned patch series:
1. Add --interactive flag and update the script's "Usage" message
2. Implement the run_if_interactive and other helper functions
3. Add a fallback to distro detection and verify the user's choice
- Why? A user running Pop!_OS can utilize hints based on Ubuntu
but the script will not detect and return a "Unknown distro" message
- Add a package manager check for each distro-specific function to
verify the user's choice. Avoids running harmful/unsupported commands
4. Apply interactive mode to distro-specific hints - Integration
Please provide feedback/advice if necessary. Patches are ready and will be sent
in 2-3 days after gathering any possible feedback.
Please provide feedback, especially on:
1. Whether to merge patches 1 and 2
- They are both setting the starting point for the entire feature
2. How to deal with commands in recommend_sphinx_version()
- Two possible routes exist to install sphinx
- Available options: pip/pypi or distro-specific package manager
- The plan is to add a prompt that asks the user to specify a number
1 for pip, 2 for package manager, 0 to skip
Initial RFC
RFC: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250410155414.47114-1-saivishnu725@xxxxxxxxx/
Feedback: https://lore.kernel.org/all/87ikn6bw34.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thank you for the time and response!
