Bug#1118100: linux: FTBFS on 'all' buildd: Could not import extension kernel_include (exception: No module named 'docutils.utils.error_reporting')

[Adrian Bunk <bunk@debian.org>]

Control: forwarded -1 https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=00d95fcc4dee66dfb6980de6f2973b32f973a1eb

On Tue, Oct 14, 2025 at 10:24:49PM +0100, Simon McVittie wrote:
> Source: linux
> Version: 6.16.12-1
> Severity: serious
> Tags: ftbfs
> Justification: fails to build from source (but built successfully in the past)
> X-Debbugs-Cc: python3-docutils@packages.debian.org, python3-sphinx@packages.debian.org
> 
> The linux source package didn't successfully build its Architecture: all
> binary packages (notably linux-libc-dev, which is build-essential) on 
> the official buildds:
> 
> >Running Sphinx v8.2.3
> >Using alabaster theme
> >loading translations [en]... done
> >
> >Extension error!
> ...
> >      File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/sphinx/registry.py", line 544, in load_extension
> >        raise ExtensionError(
> >            __('Could not import extension %s') % extname, err
> >        ) from err
> >    sphinx.errors.ExtensionError: Could not import extension kernel_include (exception: No module named 'docutils.utils.error_reporting')
> 
> (Is this perhaps an incompatible change in the recent python-docutils 
> upload?)

Seems so:
    The ErrorString() and SafeString() docutils functions were helpers meant to
    ease the handling of encodings during the Python 3 transition.  There is no
    real need for them after Python 3.6, and docutils 0.22 removes them,
    breaking the docs build

That's from the commit I'm linking above (untested).

>     smcv

cu
Adrian