1 files changed, 13 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index cefeb8fcce..47bf617fcc 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -4589,13 +4589,24 @@ if compile_prog "" "" ; then
   syncfs=yes
 fi
 
+# Check we have a new enough version of sphinx-build
+has_sphinx_build() {
+    # This is a bit awkward but works: create a trivial document and
+    # try to run it with our configuration file (which enforces a
+    # version requirement). This will fail if either
+    # sphinx-build doesn't exist at all or if it is too old.
+    mkdir -p "$TMPDIR1/sphinx"
+    touch "$TMPDIR1/sphinx/index.rst"
+    sphinx-build -c "$source_path/docs" -b html "$TMPDIR1/sphinx" "$TMPDIR1/sphinx/out" >/dev/null 2>&1
+}
+
 # Check if tools are available to build documentation.
 if test "$docs" != "no" ; then
-  if has makeinfo && has pod2man; then
+  if has makeinfo && has pod2man && has_sphinx_build; then
     docs=yes
   else
     if test "$docs" = "yes" ; then
-      feature_not_found "docs" "Install texinfo and Perl/perl-podlators"
+      feature_not_found "docs" "Install texinfo, Perl/perl-podlators and python-sphinx"
     fi
     docs=no
   fi