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DH_SPHINXDOC(1) Debhelper DH_SPHINXDOC(1)

NAME

dh_sphinxdoc - helps with packaging Sphinx-generated documentation

SYNOPSIS

dh_sphinxdoc [debhelper options] [-Xitem] [directory...]

DESCRIPTION

dh_sphinxdoc is a debhelper program that prepares Sphinx-generated documentation for inclusion in a Debian package. More specifically:

  • It checks if all the files referenced by searchindex.js exist.
  • It replaces known *.js files with symlinks to /usr/share/javascript/sphinxdoc/ and generates ${sphinxdoc:Depends} substitution variable.
  • If the Sphinx RTD theme is used, it replaces known files from this theme with symlinks to /usr/share/sphinx_rtd_theme/, and adds sphinx-rtd-theme-common to ${sphinxdoc:Depends}.
  • It provides a ${sphinxdoc:Built-Using} substitution variable, for tracking files which could not be symlinked. Examples of such files are *.js and *.css files that are generated from corresponding *.js.jinja and *.css.jinja templates, and can vary depending on the used theme options (for instance, basic.css file is generated from basic.css.jinja and is included in almost every Sphinx-generated documentation). Currently, this variable will contain sphinx and, if the default theme is used, alabaster, with their versions (other themes are not supported).

    Note: in most cases you do not need this variable. Use it only if that is required by your license. See <https://bugs.debian.org/1136263> for details.

  • It removes the .doctrees directory.
  • It removes the .buildinfo file.
  • It removes the websupport.js file and *-stemmer.js files.

Note that dh_sphinxdoc does not build the documentation, it only performs the above operations when the documentation is already installed into the package build path. To build the docs, please use sphinx-build(1) command or python3 -m sphinx syntax.

You can pass --with sphinxdoc to dh(1) to make it automatically call dh_sphinxdoc after dh_installdocs.

OPTIONS

By default, dh_sphinxdoc scans your package looking for directories looking like they contain Sphinx-generated documentation. However, if you explicitly provide one or more directories, only they will be processed. If documentation is not found at directory, an error is raised.
Exclude files that contain item anywhere in their filename from being symlinked, removed or checked for existence.

BUGS

Symlinking translations.js is not supported.

SEE ALSO

debhelper(7), dh(1).

This program is meant to be used together with debhelper.

AUTHOR

Jakub Wilk <jwilk@debian.org>

2026-10-24