Don't support building documentation on Python 3.8

EliahKagan · EliahKagan · commit 8d979061850e · 2026-03-09T18:10:49.000-04:00
This discontinues supporting building documentation on Python 3.8. It does not affect installing or running GitPython on Python 3.8 (except when the `doc` extra is used, but this is only used for building documentation). The reason is that it is no longer possible to use the same version of Sphinx on Python 3.8 as on the most recent supported versions of Python, because Python 3.14 no longer has `ast.Str` (using `str.Constant` for string literals instead), which causes the oldest version of `sphinx` that runs on Python 3.14 to be `sphinx` 7.2.0, while the newest version that is installable on Python 3.8 is `sphinx` 7.1.2. The immediately preceding commit changes the requirements for the `doc` extra to specify a newer `sphinx` version for Python 3.9 and later. This can't be done on Python 3.8. Because there can be subtle differences in documentation generated with different `sphinx` versions, and because Python 3.8 has been end-of-life for some time, it is not really worth carrying conditional dependencies for the `sphinx` version in `doc/requirements.txt`. Note that, while it is probably not a very good idea to use GitPython (or anything) on Python 3.8 since it is end-of-life, this change does not stop supporting installing GitPython on that or any other version it has been supporting. Installing and using GitPython remains supported all the way back to Python 3.7 at this time. This only affects the `doc` extra and its requirements. This change is analogous to the change made in #1956, which followed up on the change in #1964 in the same way this change follows up on the change in the immediately preceding commit.
diff --git a/.github/workflows/pythonpackage.yml b/.github/workflows/pythonpackage.yml
@@ -30,6 +30,11 @@ jobs:
         - os-type: ubuntu
           python-version: "3.7"
           os-ver: "22.04"
+        - build-docs: true  # We ensure documentation builds, except on very old interpreters.
+        - python-version: "3.7"
+          build-docs: false
+        - python-version: "3.8"
+          build-docs: false
         - experimental: false
 
       fail-fast: false
@@ -110,7 +115,7 @@ jobs:
       continue-on-error: false
 
     - name: Documentation
-      if: matrix.python-version != '3.7'
+      if: matrix.build-docs
       run: |
         pip install '.[doc]'
         make -C doc html
diff --git a/doc/requirements.txt b/doc/requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-sphinx >= 7.4.7, < 8 ; python_version >= "3.9"
-sphinx >= 7.1.2, < 7.2 ; python_version < "3.9"
+sphinx >= 7.4.7, < 8
 sphinx_rtd_theme
 sphinx-autodoc-typehints
