PEP: 676 Title: PEP Infrastructure Process Author: Adam Turner Sponsor: Mariatta Discussions-To: https://discuss.python.org/t/10774 Status: Draft Type: Process Content-Type: text/x-rst Created: 01-Nov-2021 Post-History: 23-Sep-2021 Abstract ======== This PEP addresses the infrastructure around rendering PEP files from reStructuredText_ files to HTML webpages. We aim to specify a self-contained and maintainable solution for PEP readers, authors, and editors. Motivation ========== As of November 2021, Python Enhancement Proposals (PEPs) are rendered in a multi-system, multi-stage process. A continuous integration (CI) task runs a docutils_ script to render all PEP files individually. The CI task then uploads a tar archive to a server, where it is retrieved and rendered into the `python.org`_ website periodically. This places a constraint on the `python.org`_ website to handle raw HTML uploads and handle PEP rendering, and makes the appropriate place to raise issues unclear in some cases [1]_. This PEP provides a specification for self-contained rendering of PEPs. This would: * reduce the amount of distributed configuration for supporting PEPs * enable quality-of-life improvements for those who read, write, and review PEPs * solve a number of outstanding issues, and lay the path for improvements * save volunteer maintainers' time We propose that PEPs are accessed through peps.python.org_ at the top-level namespace (for example `peps.python.org/pep-0008/`_), and that all custom tooling to support rendering PEPs is hosted in the `python/peps`_ repository. Rationale ========= Simplifying and Centralising Infrastructure ------------------------------------------- As of November 2021, to locally render a PEP file, a PEP author or editor needs to create a full local instance of the `python.org`_ website and run a number of disparate scripts, following documentation_ that lives outside of the `python/peps`_ repository. The proposed implementation provides a single Makefile_ and a Python script to render all PEP files, with options to target a web-server or local filesystem environment. Using a single repository to host all tooling will clarify where to raise issues, reducing volunteer time spent in triage. Simplified and centralised tooling may also reduce the barrier to entry to further improvements, as the scope of the PEP rendering infrastructure is well defined. Quality-of-Life Improvements and Resolving Issues ------------------------------------------------- There are several requests for additional features in reading PEPs, such as: * syntax highlighting [2]_ * use of ``.. code-block::`` directives [2]_ * support for SVG images [3]_ * typographic quotation marks [4]_ * additional footer information [5]_ * intersphinx functionality [6]_ These are "easy wins" from this proposal, and would serve to improve the quality-of-life for consumers of PEPs (including reviewers and writers). For example, the reference implementation no longer requires a scheduled render process to run, instead initiating rendering on every commit to the `python/peps`_ repository. Equally, there are a small number of broken items, for example list styles not being respected or support for updating images being challenging with the system [7]_. These would be solved by default in the proposal. Commercial providers such as `Read the Docs`_ can additionally enhance this experience, for example by providing rendered previews of changes in pull requests. Specification ============= The proposed specification for rendering the PEP files to HTML is as per the `reference implementation`_. That the HTML files should be made available under peps.python.org_. The rendered files may be hosted just as static files, and behind a content delivery network (CDN). The following redirect rules must be created from the `python.org`_ domain: * /peps/ -> https://peps.python.org/ * /dev/peps/ -> https://peps.python.org/ * /peps/(.*)\.html -> https://peps.python.org/$1 * /dev/peps/(.*) -> https://peps.python.org/$1 .. code-block:: nginx location ~ ^/dev/peps/?(.*)$ { return 308 https://peps.python.org/$1/; } location ~ ^/peps/(.*)\.html$ { return 308 https://peps.python.org/$1/; } location ^/(dev/)?peps(/.*)?$ { return 308 https://peps.python.org/; } Redirects must be implemented to preserve `URL fragments`_ for backward compatibility purposes. Backwards Compatibility ======================= Due to server-side redirects to new canonical URLs, there are no backwards compatibility concerns. Links in previously published materials referring to any old URL scheme will be guaranteed to work. Security Implications ===================== No security implications, and the main `python.org`_ website will no longer take raw HTML uploads, closing a potential threat vector. How to Teach This ================= The new canonical URLs will be publicised in the documentation. However, this is mainly a backend infrastructure change, and there should be minimal end-user impact. Reference Implementation ======================== The proposed implementation has been merged into the `python/peps`_ repository in a series of pull requests [8]_. This automatically renders all PEPs on every commit. Rejected Ideas ============== It would likely be possible to amend the current (as of November 2021) rendering process to include a lot of the quality-of-life improvements and issue mitigations mentioned above. However, we do not believe that this would solve the distributed tooling issue. It would be possible to use the output from the proposed rendering system and import it into `python.org`_. We would argue however that this would be the worst of both worlds, as a great deal of complexity is added, and none is removed. Open Issues =========== None. Acknowledgements ================ Thanks to Hugo van Kemenade, Pablo Galindo Salgado, and Éric Araujo for support since April 2020. Footnotes ========= .. _documentation: https://pythondotorg.readthedocs.io/pep_generation.html .. _docutils: https://docutils.sourceforge.io .. _Makefile: https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html#Introduction .. _peps.python.org: https://peps.python.org/ .. _peps.python.org/pep-0008/: https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/ .. _python.org: https://www.python.org .. _python/peps: https://github.com/python/peps .. _Read the Docs: https://readthedocs.org .. _reStructuredText: https://docutils.sourceforge.io/rst.html .. _URL fragments: https://url.spec.whatwg.org/#concept-url-fragment .. [1] For example, `pythondotorg#1024 `__, `pythondotorg#1038 `__, `pythondotorg#1387 `__, `pythondotorg#1388 `__, `pythondotorg#1393 `__, `pythondotorg#1564 `__, `pythondotorg#1913 `__, .. [2] Requested: `pythondotorg#1063 `__, `pythondotorg#1206 `__, `pythondotorg#1638 `__, `peps#159 `__, `comment in peps#1571 `__, `peps#1577 `__, .. [3] Requested: `peps#701 `__ .. [4] Requested: `peps#165 `__ .. [5] Requested: `pythondotorg#1564 `__ .. [6] Requested: `comment in peps#2 `__ .. [7] As of November 2021, see `peps#1387 `__, `pythondotorg#824 `__, `pythondotorg#1556 `__, .. [8] Implementation PRs: `peps#1930 `__, `peps#1931 `__, `peps#1932 `__, `peps#1933 `__, `peps#1934 `__ Copyright ========= This document is placed in the public domain or under the CC0-1.0-Universal license, whichever is more permissive. .. Local Variables: mode: indented-text indent-tabs-mode: nil sentence-end-double-space: t fill-column: 70 coding: utf-8 End: