ReadTheDocs Version:3 Jobs¶

ReadTheDocs supports the nesting of projects, by configuring a project as a subproject of another project. This allows for documentation projects to share a search index and a namespace or custom domain, while still maintained independently of each other.

The master Read The Docs project files, maintained in a “docs” Git repository should contain an index with links to all the sub-projects. Each sub-project must maintain its documentation files in a “docs” subdirectory within that software component’s Git repository.

The RTDv3 Jenkins jobs publish documentation by triggering builds at ReadTheDocs.io. That build process clones the appropriate repository and transforms reStructuredText (RST) and other files into HTML. All project’s Read the Docs builds separately from sub-project builds.

The Read The Docs site supports versioned documentation for the master project and every sub-project. Every project should have a development branch that’s published at ReadTheDocs under the title “latest”; in Git this is the “master” branch although can be different in some projects. Most projects also declare releases periodically. ReadTheDocs automatically detects the creation of git branches and git tags, and publishes the most recent one under the title “stable.” For more details please see ReadTheDocs Versions. Teams can control this process using Jenkins job configuration parameters as discussed below.

User setup¶

To transform your rst documentation into a Read The Docs page, configure as described in Admin setup below. Once this is complete, add the following files to your repository:

.readthedocs.yaml
tox.ini
docs
docs/_static
docs/_static/logo.png
docs/conf.yaml
docs/favicon.ico
docs/index.rst
docs/requirements-docs.txt
docs/conf.py

Rather than copying and pasting these files from a set of docs here, the following repo contains a script that will do this for you. Please refer to the explanation presented in: <https://github.com/lfit-sandbox/test>. This is a beta feature, so please send feedback on your experiences. Once complete, the script docs_script.sh is not needed. You can copy the files by hand if you prefer.

The default location of the tox.ini file is in the git repository root directory. Optionally your documentation lead may decide to store all tox files within the required “docs” subdirectory by setting configuration option “tox-dir” to value “docs/” as discussed below.

If your project’s tox dir is docs/ and not ., update the tox.ini configuration with the correct relative paths.

You must also set the doc-dir. For example, from the default of doc-dir: "docs/_build/html" to doc-dir: "_build/html", as the relative path in the tox run has changed.

Once configured, in your repository you can build the rst files locally to test:

tox -e docs,docs-linkcheck

Stable Branch Instructions¶

If your project does not create branches, you can skip this step.

For Read The Docs to see your new branch, trigger a build to force RTD to run an update. Use a trivial change to any file in your project’s /docs/ directory on your newly minted branch to trigger a build and activate your project’s new branch on Read The Docs. This will create a new selectable version in the bottom right corner of your project’s Read The Docs page. Once all projects have branched the process to release the documentation (that is to change the default landing point of your docs from /latest/ to /branchname/) is to change the default-version in the jenkins job config as follows:

From:

default-version: latest

To:

default-version: ReleaseBranchName

Admin setup:¶

This part of the documentation explains how to enable this job so that It will trigger on docs/* changes for all projects in a Gerrit instance. It leverages the Read The Docs v3 api to create projects on the fly, as well as setting up sub-project associations with the master doc.

A .readthedocs.yaml must exist in the root of the repository otherwise the jobs will run but skip actual verification.

Define the master doc in jenkins-config/global-vars-{production|sandbox}.sh

This project named “doc” or “docs” or “documentation” will set all other docs builds as a subproject of this job.

examples:

global-vars-sandbox.sh:
MASTER_RTD_PROJECT=doc-test
global-vars-production.sh:
MASTER_RTD_PROJECT=doc

In this way sandbox jobs will create docs with a test suffix and will not stomp on production documentation.

Example job config:

example file: ci-management/jjb/rtd/rtd.yaml

---
- project:
    name: rtdv3-global-verify
    build-node: centos7-builder-1c-1g
    default-version: latest
    tox-dir: "."
    doc-dir: "docs/_build/html"
    jobs:
      - rtdv3-global-verify
    stream:
      - master:
          branch: master
      - foo:
          branch: stable/{stream}

- project:
    name: rtdv3-global-merge
    default-version: latest
    tox-dir: "."
    doc-dir: "docs/_build/html"
    build-node: centos7-builder-1c-1g
    jobs:
      - rtdv3-global-merge
    stream:
      - master:
          branch: master
      - foo:
          branch: stable/{stream}

Or add both jobs via a job group: This real-world example also shows how to configure your builds to use a tox.ini that lived inside your docs/ dir

# Global read the docs version 3 jobs
#
# jobs trigger for all projects, all branches
# on any changes to files in a docs/ directory
# and publish subprojects to readthedocs.io
# using credentials from Jenkins settings
---
- project:
    name: rtdv3-view
    project-name: rtdv3-global
    views:
      - project-view

- project:
    name: rtdv3-global
    default-version: latest
    tox-dir: "docs/"
    doc-dir: "_build/html"
    build-node: centos7-builder-2c-1g
    # override the default to ignore ref-updated-event (tag)
    gerrit_merge_triggers:
      - change-merged-event
      - comment-added-contains-event:
          comment-contains-value: remerge$
    jobs:
      - rtdv3-global-verify
      - rtdv3-global-merge
    stream:
      - master:
          branch: '*'

GitHub jobs must be per-project. Once proven, a different set of jobs will be available.

Job requires an lftools config section, this is to provide api access to read the docs.

[rtd]
endpoint = https://readthedocs.org/api/v3/
token = [hidden]

Merge Job will create a project on Read The Docs if none exist. Merge Job will assign a project as a subproject of the master project. Merge job will trigger a build to update docs. Merge job will change the default version if needed.

Macros¶

lf-rtdv3-common¶

RTD verify and merge jobs are the same except for their scm, trigger, and builders definition. This anchor is the common template.

Job Templates¶

ReadTheDocs v3 Merge¶

Merge job which triggers a build of the docs to Read The Docs.

Template Names:

rtdv3-global-merge-{stream}

Comment Trigger:

remerge

Required parameters:

build-node:: The node to run build on.
jenkins-ssh-credential:: Credential to use for SSH. (Generally set in defaults.yaml)

Optional parameters:

branch:

Git branch to fetch for the build. (default: master)

build-days-to-keep:

Days to keep build logs in Jenkins. (default: 7)

build-timeout:

Timeout in minutes before aborting build. (default: 15)

default-version:

default page to redirect to for documentation (default /latest/)

disable-job:

Whether to disable the job (default: false)

git-url:

URL clone project from. (default: $GIT_URL/$PROJECT)

project-pattern:

Project to trigger build against. (default: **)

stream:

Keyword representing a release code-name. Often the same as the branch. (default: master)

submodule-recursive:

Whether to checkout submodules recursively. (default: true)

submodule-timeout:

Timeout (in minutes) for checkout operation. (default: 10)

submodule-disable:

Disable submodule checkout operation. (default: false)

tox-dir:

Directory containing the project’s Read The Docs tox.ini

doc-dir:

Relative directory project’s docs generated by tox

gerrit_merge_triggers:

Override Gerrit Triggers.

gerrit_trigger_file_paths:

Override file paths filter which checks which file modifications will trigger a build. default:

- compare-type: REG_EXP
  pattern: '^docs\/.*'

ReadTheDocs v3 Verify¶

Verify job which runs a tox build of the docs project. Also outputs some info on the build.