force_decode is no longer available in Sphinx 4.0.0

[Zlopez]

Hi,

today I tried to update to sphinx 4.0.0 and the build of doc failed on:

Extension error:
Could not import extension sphinxcontrib.autohttp.flask (exception: cannot import name 'force_decode' from 'sphinx.util' (/var/home/zlopez/git/anitya/.tox/docs/lib/python3.9/site-packages/sphinx/util/__init__.py))

It seems that force_decode is deprecated from Sphinx 2.0 and it is removed completely in 4.0. See https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/extdev/deprecated.html

[stevepiercy]

The same issue appears in repoze/repoze.sphinx.autointerface#16. I started a PR repoze/repoze.sphinx.autointerface#17, but haven't had time to fix the remaining issues.

I could definitely use advice on how to replace sphinx.ext.autodoc.AutoDirective with application.Sphinx.add_autodocumenter() and for addressing an issue with sphinx.theming.Theme.themes.

[kasium]

Hi guys,
I also stumbled across this issue. Maybe it's worth to ask the sphinx developers how to fix the open issues?

[Zlopez]

The change is now reverted in 4.0.3 of sphinx. The force_decode() works again. See changelog for 4.0.3

[kloczek]

OK.
Thx :)

[kloczek]

Just tested that. With 4.0.3

+ /usr/bin/python3 setup.py build_sphinx -b man --build-dir build/sphinx
running build_sphinx
Running Sphinx v4.0.3
making output directory... done
building [mo]: targets for 0 po files that are out of date
building [man]: all manpages
updating environment: [new config] 2 added, 0 changed, 0 removed
reading sources... [100%] index
looking for now-outdated files... none found
pickling environment... done
checking consistency... done
writing... python-sphinxcontrib-httpdomain.3 { } done
build succeeded.

One more time thank you to let me know :)

[stevepiercy]

I would suggest that you reopen this issue. force_decode() will become a problem when Sphinx 5.0 is released because its usage is still deprecated. The change note is a little misleading because the contributor used the term "during" instead of "until". See: sphinx-doc/sphinx#9326 (comment)

This reverts the removal and extends its deprecation period to 5.0.0. I hope it helps users of these extensions.

[kasium]

I'm also happy to support here, but yes, this will become an issue again in Sphinx 5

[mcepl]

I happily accept that this patch is not the greatest achievement of the computer science, but it seems to do the job, and it allows me to build httpdomain package for openSUSE with different versions of Sphinx.

Of course, the proper solution is to follow the idea of sphinx-doc/sphinx#5620 (comment) and fix the use of str/bytes so that it is not required anyrmore.

[danc86]

PR #49 seems to be a reasonable solution to this (just remove all usages of force_decode because they should not be needed).