Bug#955079: python-xarray: FTBFS with Sphinx 2.4: ImportError: cannot import name 'main' from 'sphinx' (/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/sphinx/__init__.py)

[Lucas Nussbaum]

Source: python-xarray
Version: 0.15.0-3
Severity: important
Tags: ftbfs
User: python-modules-team at lists.alioth.debian.org
Usertags: sphinx2.4

Hi,

python-xarray fails to build with Sphinx 2.4, currently available in
experimental.

Relevant part (hopefully):
> make[2]: Entering directory '/<<PKGBUILDDIR>>/doc'
> sphinx3-build -b html -d _build/doctrees   . _build/html
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "/<<PKGBUILDDIR>>/debian/sphinx3-build", line 11, in <module>
>     from sphinx import main, make_main
> ImportError: cannot import name 'main' from 'sphinx' (/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/sphinx/__init__.py)
> make[2]: *** [Makefile:57: html] Error 1

The full build log is available from:
   http://qa-logs.debian.net/2020/03/26/python-xarray_0.15.0-3_unstable_sphinx243.log

Please see [1] for Sphinx changelog, which may give a hint of what changes in
Sphinx caused this error.

Also see [2] for the list of deprecated/removed APIs and possible alternatives
to them.

Sphinx 2.4 is going to be uploaded to unstable in a couple of weeks. When that
happens, the severity of this bug will be bumped to serious.

In case you have questions, please Cc sphinx at packages.debian.org on reply.

[1]: https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/2.0/changes.html
[2]: https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/2.0/extdev/deprecated.html#dev-deprecated-apis

A list of current common problems and possible solutions is available at
http://wiki.debian.org/qa.debian.org/FTBFS . You're welcome to contribute!

About the archive rebuild: The rebuild was done on EC2 VM instances from
Amazon Web Services, using a clean, minimal and up-to-date chroot. Every
failed build was retried once to eliminate random failures.