Build: do not auto-create conf.py Sphinx file

Follows https://blog.readthedocs.com/doctool-without-configuration-file/

Author: humitos

readthedocs/doc_builder/backends/sphinx.py

@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
 import structlog
 from django.conf import settings
 from django.template import loader as template_loader
-from django.template.loader import render_to_string
 from django.urls import reverse
 from requests.exceptions import ConnectionError
 
@@ -24,7 +23,6 @@
 from readthedocs.projects.exceptions import ProjectConfigurationError, UserFileNotFound
 from readthedocs.projects.models import Feature
 from readthedocs.projects.templatetags.projects_tags import sort_version_aware
-from readthedocs.projects.utils import safe_write
 
 from ..base import BaseBuilder
 from ..constants import PDF_RE
@@ -113,25 +111,6 @@ def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
             # because Read the Docs will automatically create one for it.
             pass
 
-    def _write_config(self, master_doc='index'):
-        """Create ``conf.py`` if it doesn't exist."""
-        log.info(
-            'Creating default Sphinx config file for project.',
-            project_slug=self.project.slug,
-            version_slug=self.version.slug,
-        )
-        docs_dir = self.docs_dir()
-        conf_template = render_to_string(
-            'sphinx/conf.py.conf',
-            {
-                'project': self.project,
-                'version': self.version,
-                'master_doc': master_doc,
-            },
-        )
-        conf_file = os.path.join(docs_dir, 'conf.py')
-        safe_write(conf_file, conf_template)
-
     def get_config_params(self):
         """Get configuration parameters to be rendered into the conf file."""
         # TODO this should be handled better in the theme
@@ -272,18 +251,10 @@ def get_config_params(self):
 
     def append_conf(self):
         """
-        Find or create a ``conf.py`` and appends default content.
+        Find a ``conf.py`` and appends default content.
 
         The default content is rendered from ``doc_builder/conf.py.tmpl``.
         """
-
-        # Generate a `conf.py` from a template
-        #
-        # TODO: we should remove this feature at some point to move forward
-        # with the idea of remove magic from the builders.
-        if not self.config_file:
-            self._write_config()
-
         try:
             self.config_file = (
                 self.config_file or self.project.conf_file(self.version.slug)
@@ -310,7 +281,7 @@ def append_conf(self):
             outfile.write(rendered)
 
         # Print the contents of conf.py in order to make the rendered
-        # configfile visible in the build logs
+        # config file visible in the build logs
         self.run(
             'cat',
             os.path.relpath(

readthedocs/rtd_tests/tests/test_doc_builder.py

@@ -165,66 +165,6 @@ def test_html_context_only_has_public_versions(
         }
         self.assertEqual(versions, {'v1', 'v2'})
 
-    @patch('readthedocs.doc_builder.backends.sphinx.BaseSphinx.docs_dir')
-    @patch('readthedocs.doc_builder.backends.sphinx.BaseSphinx.get_config_params')
-    @patch('readthedocs.doc_builder.backends.sphinx.BaseSphinx.run')
-    @patch('readthedocs.builds.models.Version.get_conf_py_path')
-    @patch('readthedocs.projects.models.Project.checkout_path')
-    def test_create_conf_py(
-        self,
-        checkout_path,
-        get_conf_py_path,
-        _,
-        get_config_params,
-        docs_dir,
-    ):
-        """
-        Test for a project without ``conf.py`` file.
-
-        When this happen, the ``get_conf_py_path`` raises a
-        ``ProjectConfigurationError`` which is captured by our own code and
-        generates a conf.py file based using our own template.
-
-        This template should be properly rendered in Python2 and Python3 without
-        any kind of exception raised by ``append_conf`` (we were originally
-        having a ``TypeError`` because of an encoding problem in Python3)
-        """
-        tmp_dir = tempfile.mkdtemp()
-        checkout_path.return_value = tmp_dir
-        docs_dir.return_value = tmp_dir
-        get_config_params.return_value = {}
-        get_conf_py_path.side_effect = ProjectConfigurationError
-        python_env = Virtualenv(
-            version=self.version,
-            build_env=self.build_env,
-            config=None,
-        )
-        base_sphinx = BaseSphinx(
-            build_env=self.build_env,
-            python_env=python_env,
-        )
-        try:
-            with override_settings(DOCROOT=tmp_dir):
-                base_sphinx.append_conf()
-        except Exception:
-            pytest.fail('Exception was generated when append_conf called.')
-
-        # Check the content generated by our method is the same than what we
-        # expects from a pre-generated file
-        generated_conf_py = os.path.join(base_sphinx.docs_dir(), 'conf.py')
-        expected_conf_py = os.path.join(
-            os.path.dirname(__file__),
-            '..',
-            'files',
-            'conf.py',
-        )
-        with open(generated_conf_py) as gf, open(expected_conf_py) as ef:
-            autogenerated_confpy_lines = 28
-            self.assertEqual(
-                gf.readlines()[:autogenerated_confpy_lines],
-                ef.readlines()[:autogenerated_confpy_lines],
-            )
-
     @patch('readthedocs.doc_builder.backends.sphinx.BaseSphinx.docs_dir')
     @patch('readthedocs.doc_builder.backends.sphinx.BaseSphinx.get_config_params')
     @patch('readthedocs.doc_builder.backends.sphinx.BaseSphinx.run')