Build Fail Sphinx Error contents.rst not found

Question

I follow the instructions on read the docs but I get this error:

bash Sphinx error: master file /home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/mybinders/checkouts/latest/docs/source/contents.rst not found

Do have to you the read the docs yaml file?

Answer 1

If you have your own conf.py file, it overrides Read the Doc's default conf.py. By default, Sphinx expects the master doc to be contents. Read the Docs will set master doc to index instead (or whatever it is you have specified in your settings). Try adding this to your conf.py:

master_doc = 'index'

For more information, check out this issue: https://github.com/rtfd/readthedocs.org/issues/2569

Answer 2

I've needed to have my conf.py because of the extensions I'm using so simply add

master_doc = 'contents'

to your conf.py and than

rename your index.rst to contents.rst.

Than after build passes OK you still won't see anything on ReadTheDocs, except "This page still doesn't exists" just go to:

https://your-project.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contents.html

And you'll see your docs there.

Answer 3

I experienced the same problem through the readthedocs tutorial this week. I solved the issue by changing the location of index.rst from projectname/docs/source to docs since that was the error that appeared in the build log. After this Readthedocs was able to build without problems.

Hope it helps someone.