Sphinx-quickstart doesn't work

Question

I am trying to install sphinx on a remote machine.

Since I don't have an access to the root, I did this:

$bash

$mkdir -p ~/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages

$export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:~/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages

$export PATH=$PATH::~/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages

$easy_install -U --prefix=$HOME/local Sphinx

But apparently, $easy_install doesn't build sphinx-quickstart; when I type

$sphinx-quickstart

I get the following message:

bash: sphinx-quickstart: command not found

I tried

find $HOME -name sphinx-quickstart

and no result was found. However, I can import sphinx inside python:

$python

And then

>>import sphinx

works. Any idea why sphinx-quickstart doesn't work?

Does the `PATH` variable contain the subdirectory where the `sphinx-quickstart` is found? -- I see you have updated your `PYTHONPATH` variable but have you updated your `PATH` variable in the same way? — Jdamian, Nov 12 '14 at 09:03
No, I had not. But now I did, and it is still the same. I typed setenv PATH $PATH\:home/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages — pmjn6, Nov 12 '14 at 19:40
I aslo typed `$bash` and then `bash-4.3$ export PATH=$PATH:~/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages` This works, but doesn't solve the issue with `sphinx-quickstart` — pmjn6, Nov 12 '14 at 20:36
Try `locate sphinx-quickstart` and `find $HOME -name sphinx-quickstart`. — Jdamian, Nov 13 '14 at 08:06
`find $HOME -name sphinx-quickstart` doesn't result anything, but still `import sphinx` works in python. — pmjn6, Nov 13 '14 at 21:09

jdknight · Answer 1 · 2019-11-26T04:14:27.470

17

An alternative way to invoke sphinx-quickstart is to explicitly load Sphinx's quickstart module. For Sphinx v1.7+:

python -m sphinx.cmd.quickstart

For older versions of Sphinx:

python -m sphinx.quickstart

For example:

$ /c/Python35/python -m sphinx.quickstart
Welcome to the Sphinx 1.6.2 quickstart utility.
...

edited Nov 26 '19 at 04:14

answered Sep 30 '17 at 21:42

jdknight

1,686
31
51

This results in `No module named sphinx.quickstart` on Windows. – DiddiZ Oct 24 '19 at 12:59
1

@DiddiZ, it may be `python -m sphinx.cmd.quickstart` on newer versions of Sphinx. – jdknight Oct 25 '19 at 03:28

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 11 '16 at 08:41

1

I found the solution in this webpage:

User (root/sudo free) installation of Python modules.

In section 3. Python 2.6+ he mentioned that the command line commands are in

~/local/bin

Although I had put ~/local/lib/python2.7/siste-packages in the path, the ~/local/bin directory was not in the path. So all I did

$export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:~/local/bin

and now it works.

I don't know why find $HOME -name sphinx-quickstart did not find sphinx-quickstart

edited May 11 '16 at 08:41

Daniel A.A. Pelsmaeker

43,952
19
106
152

answered Nov 15 '14 at 01:36

pmjn6

187
2
13

Apparently `easy_install` automatically creates the `bin` directory – pmjn6 Nov 15 '14 at 01:38

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 17 '19 at 00:53

In MacOS (Catalina) and zsh:

I installed sphinx with brew and had the same problem as you.

Solution: Installed it with conda as conda install sphinx and now it works for me

$ sphinx-quickstart
Welcome to the Sphinx 2.3.0 quickstart utility.

Installation Guide

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 22 '21 at 21:47

0

Note, if you're in a virtual environment and using poetry to run

poetry run py -m sphinx.cmd.quickstart

where py is the python launcher for Windows.

answered Feb 22 '21 at 21:47

A. Hendry

2,620
4
15
28

Sphinx-quickstart doesn't work

4 Answers4

Linked