GH-125722: Increase minimum supported Sphinx to 8.1.3

.github/workflows/reusable-docs.yml

@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ jobs:
     - name: 'Set up Python'
       uses: actions/setup-python@v5
       with:
-        python-version: '3.13'  # known to work with Sphinx 7.2.6
+        python-version: '3.13'  # known to work with Sphinx 8.1.3
         cache: 'pip'
         cache-dependency-path: 'Doc/requirements-oldest-sphinx.txt'
     - name: 'Install build dependencies'

Doc/conf.py

@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@
 highlight_language = 'python3'
 
 # Minimum version of sphinx required
-needs_sphinx = '7.2.6'
+needs_sphinx = '8.1.3'
 
 # Create table of contents entries for domain objects (e.g. functions, classes,
 # attributes, etc.). Default is True.

Doc/requirements-oldest-sphinx.txt

@@ -7,25 +7,25 @@ blurb
 python-docs-theme>=2022.1
 
 # Generated from:
-#     pip install "Sphinx~=7.2.6"
+#     pip install "Sphinx~=8.1.3"
 #     pip freeze
 #
-# Sphinx 7.2.6 comes from ``needs_sphinx = '7.2.6'`` in ``Doc/conf.py``.
+# Sphinx 8.1.3 comes from ``needs_sphinx = '8.1.3'`` in ``Doc/conf.py``.
 
-alabaster==0.7.16
+alabaster==1.0.0
 babel==2.16.0
 certifi==2024.12.14
-charset-normalizer==3.4.0
-docutils==0.20.1
+charset-normalizer==3.4.1
+docutils==0.21.2
 idna==3.10
 imagesize==1.4.1
 Jinja2==3.1.5
 MarkupSafe==3.0.2
 packaging==24.2
-Pygments==2.18.0
+Pygments==2.19.1
 requests==2.32.3
 snowballstemmer==2.2.0
-Sphinx==7.2.6
+Sphinx==8.1.3
 sphinxcontrib-applehelp==2.0.0
 sphinxcontrib-devhelp==2.0.0
 sphinxcontrib-htmlhelp==2.1.0

Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2025-01-16-18-59-11.gh-issue-125722.eHHRga.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Require Sphinx 8.1.3 or later to build the Python documentation. Patch by
+Adam Turner.