[PostGIS] #6124: 3.7.0rc1 docs build failure without error message (was: 3.7.0rc1 compile failure on NetBSD)

[PostGIS]

#6124: 3.7.0rc1 docs build failure without error message
----------------------------+---------------------------
  Reporter:  robe           |      Owner:  robe
      Type:  defect         |     Status:  new
  Priority:  blocker        |  Milestone:  PostGIS 3.7.0
 Component:  documentation  |    Version:  master
Resolution:                 |   Keywords:
----------------------------+---------------------------
Changes (by gdt):

 * cc: gdt (added)
 * priority:  medium => blocker
 * summary:  3.7.0rc1 compile failure on NetBSD => 3.7.0rc1 docs build
     failure without error message

Comment:

 This is about the docs build.   I retitled away from NetBSD because
 there's no evidence this is OS specific -- just that I don't happen to
 have random non-documented things installed that are present in some other
 environments.

 There are probably three problems.   One is that there are some new
 (relative to 3.6) dependencies to build the documentation, and those are
 not noted in NEWS and the in-distfille build instructions reachable from
 README.   Best practice for packaging is to hide/withdraw all things which
 are not declared dependencies, so this likely affects multiple packaging
 systems.

 The second is that this arguably should have been caught by CI, which
 should only install documented dependencies.

 The third problem is that when the secret dependency isn't available, the
 docs build just skips a step, apparently -- but it's later fatal that it
 didn't happen.  If it's a dependency, then configure or build should fail
 with an explicit error.

 For the release, the docs need fixing.  The rest should happen, but it's
 less critical.
-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.osgeo.org/postgis/ticket/6124#comment:1>
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