Unable to specify wheel version for building

[GrowlingM1ke]

Details

• Read the Docs project URL: https://readthedocs.org/projects/calcium-transient-analysis/
• Build URL : https://readthedocs.org/projects/calcium-transient-analysis/builds/26645248/
• Read the Docs username: https://readthedocs.org/profiles/GrowlingM1ke/

Expected Result

Successfully build with the correct version of wheel being used.

Actual Result

My builds have been recently failing due to a specific library I'm using (mayavi). I've managed to figure out how to get the build to run successfully locally however it still fails when it builds on readthedocs. I've noticed that even when specifying in pyproject.toml

[build-system]
requires = [
    "setuptools>=42",
    "wheel==0.45.1",
]

The output logs shows that it is using wheel version 0.40.0:

python -mvirtualenv $READTHEDOCS_VIRTUALENV_PATH
created virtual environment CPython3.10.15.final.0-64 in 667ms
  creator CPython3Posix(dest=/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/calcium-transient-analysis/envs/latest, clear=False, no_vcs_ignore=False, global=False)
  seeder FromAppData(download=False, pip=bundle, setuptools=bundle, wheel=bundle, via=copy, app_data_dir=/home/docs/.local/share/virtualenv)
    added seed packages: pip==23.1, setuptools==67.6.1, wheel==0.40.0
  activators BashActivator,CShellActivator,FishActivator,NushellActivator,PowerShellActivator,PythonActivator

This confuses me because I thought it did recognize my pyproject.toml:

  Getting requirements to build wheel: started
  Getting requirements to build wheel: finished with status 'done'
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml): started
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml): finished with status 'done'

I'm not quite sure what the exact culprit is but my best guess is that it has to do something with wheel.

[humitos]

The output logs shows that it is using wheel version 0.40.0:

That's the wheel version installed by default when running python -mvirtualenv $READTHEDOCS_VIRTUALENV_PATH.

Then, when running python -m pip install --exists-action=w --no-cache-dir -r docs/requirements.txt it seems that pip detects your pyproject.toml as you noticed but I don't know why it doesn't upgrade the wheel requirement automatically or refuse to install your package due to mismatch required dependencies.

I'm not sure this issue is related to Read the Docs, tho. It seems more related to pip/python.

If you want to be able to build on Read the Docs, you should probably run pip install -U wheel before installing your dependencies. Example:

build:
  jobs:
    pre_install:
      - pip install -U wheel

Read more about build customization at https://docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/build-customization.html

Let me know if that helps.

[GrowlingM1ke]

@humitos Thank you I will look into the pre_install and see if it helps. As a sidenote is there any guide on running readthedocs builds locally? I don't want to spam readthedocs with builds for every small change that may potentially fix an issue that has to do with displaying documentation. I've attempted to docker pull readthedocs builds and tried to get it to build my documentation locally but I have been so far unsuccessful.