How to properly include PyAudio as a dependency for a new Python package, so that the documentation compiles on ReadTheDocs?

Question

I am currently developing a toolbox as a Python package. I have written the documentation using sphinx, and I am in the process of uploading the documentation to ReadTheDocs. My package has a bunch of dependencies, including PyAudio. I know from other posts that PyAudio needs PortAudio to function properly. However, it seems that to build the documentation from my GitHub repository, ReadTheDocs uses a virtual environment to compile it, and I keep on getting the following error:

ERROR: Could not build wheels for PyAudio, which is required to install pyproject.toml-based projects

Here is the content of my pyproject.toml file:

[build-system]
requires = ["hatchling"]
build-backend = "hatchling.build"

[project]
name = "my_toolbox"
version = "0.0"
authors = [
  { name="Ann Onym", email="[email protected]" },
]
description = "A cool toolbox"
readme = "README.md"
requires-python = ">=3.7"
classifiers = [
    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
    "License :: OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3)",
    "Operating System :: OS Independent",
]
dependencies = [
    "scipy >= 1.11.0, < 2",
    "numpy >= 1.25.0, < 2",
    "chardet >= 5.2.0, < 6",
    "matplotlib >= 3.7, < 4",
    "seaborn >= 0.12.2, < 1",
    "opencv-python == 4.8.0.76",
    "openpyxl >= 3.1, < 4",
    "pygame >= 2.5, < 3",
    "PyAudio >= 0.2.13, <1",
    "praat-parselmouth > 0.4, < 1"
]

[project.urls]
"Homepage" = "https://github.com/AnnOnym/MyCoolToolbox"
"Bug Tracker" = "https://github.com/AnnOnym/MyCoolToolbox/issues"
"Documentation" = "https://mycooltoolbox.readthedocs.io/en/latest/"

Finally, here's the content of my requirements.txt file:

sphinx==7.0.1
sphinx_rtd_theme==1.3.0
sphinx-autodoc-typehints==1.24.0
scipy == 1.11.0
numpy == 1.25.0
matplotlib == 3.7
opencv-python == 4.8.0.76
openpyxl == 3.1
pygame == 2.5
praat-parselmouth == 0.4.3
chardet == 5.2.0
PyAudio == 0.2.13
seaborn == 0.12.2

If I remove PyAudio from the dependencies or requirements, the documentation compiles on the ReadTheDocs... But I want to keep the package in the dependencies so that PyAudio gets installed if someone installs my module.

From what I understand, the problem is that the virtual environment used for compiling the documentation does not have PortAudio... How do I specify to ReadTheDocs that I need it to compile (or that ReadTheDocs doesn't need PyAudio to compile the documentation anyway)?

Thanks!

Answer 1

After tweaking around, I found the answer! I will leave it here for posterity.

The problem was not in pyproject.toml, but rather in .readthedocs.yaml. Here it is:

version: 2

build:
  os: ubuntu-22.04
  tools:
    python: "3.11"
  apt_packages:
    - portaudio19-dev

python:
  install:
    - requirements: docs/source/requirements.txt
    - method: pip
      path: .
      extra_requirements:
        - docs

sphinx:
  configuration: docs/source/conf.py

The important part being to add apt_packages: -portaudio19-dev so that the virtual environment can then create the wheel for PyAudio.