5.0.1: sphinx warnings reference target not found

[kloczek]

On building my packages I'm using sphinx-build command with -n switch which shows warmings about missing references. These are not critical issues.
Here is the output with warnings:

+ /usr/bin/sphinx-build -n -T -b man docs build/sphinx/man
Running Sphinx v4.5.0
making output directory... done
loading intersphinx inventory from http://docs.python.org/objects.inv...
intersphinx inventory has moved: http://docs.python.org/objects.inv -> https://docs.python.org/3/objects.inv
building [mo]: targets for 0 po files that are out of date
building [man]: all manpages
updating environment: [new config] 4 added, 0 changed, 0 removed
reading sources... [100%] narr
WARNING: autodoc: failed to import module 'i18nmessageid.message' from module 'zope'; the following exception was raised:
No module named 'zope.i18nmessageid'
looking for now-outdated files... none found
pickling environment... done
checking consistency... done
writing... python-zope-i18nmessageid.3 { narr api hacking } /home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/index.rst:1: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/narr.rst:1: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/narr.rst:24: WARNING: py:class reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid.message.Message
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/narr.rst:35: WARNING: py:class reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid.message.MessageFactory
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/api.rst:1: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/api.rst:4: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid.message
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:1: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:8: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:75: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: nose
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:75: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: coverage
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:89: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: coverage
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:112: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:112: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: Sphinx
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:150: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zc.buildout
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:156: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:186: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: tox
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:199: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:199: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: tox
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:202: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:207: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:207: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: nose
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:207: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: coverage
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:212: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:262: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid
/home/tkloczko/rpmbuild/BUILD/zope.i18nmessageid-5.0.1/docs/hacking.rst:268: WARNING: py:mod reference target not found: zope.i18nmessageid
done
build succeeded, 26 warnings.

You can peak on fixes that kind of issues in other projects
latchset/jwcrypto#289
click-contrib/sphinx-click@abc31069

[tseaver]

@kloczek I found I had the same issue today, running with Sphinx v7.3.7. After head scratching a bit, including setting breakpoints in the Sphinx source, I ended up deleting the docs/build directory: at that point the build succeeded. I suspect that the issue was some stale state in the docs/build/doctrees directory, but cannot confirm.

If you can still repro in a fresh clone (or after running git clean), please reopen.

[kloczek]

Thx 👍