Generating full documentation requires creating the example_thumbs first

[astrojuanlu]

Hi! I am figuring out how to build seaborn docs on Read the Docs, which indeed requires some care. I almost have it, but I noticed a weird thing, perhaps because I'm doing something wrong.

The doc/README.md states that NB_KERNEL="python3 make notebooks html should work. However, this command produces this warning:

Running Sphinx v3.3.1                                                                                                                                                                                                               [108/1702]making output directory... done                                                                                        
/home/juanlu/Projects/RTD/migrate-rtd/seaborn/doc/conf.py:290: RemovedInSphinx40Warning: The app.add_javascript() is deprecated. Please use app.add_js_file() instead.
  app.add_javascript('copybutton.js')                                                                                  
/home/juanlu/Projects/RTD/migrate-rtd/seaborn/doc/conf.py:291: RemovedInSphinx40Warning: The app.add_stylesheet() is deprecated. Please use app.add_css_file() instead.
  app.add_stylesheet('style.css')                                                                                      
WARNING: html_static_path entry 'example_thumbs' does not exist

and then, even though the example_thumbs directory is next to the sources, the thumbnails are not present in _build/html (presumably because they were not there at the beginning of the build).

Then, running make html a second time fixes this, and all the thumbnails appear in _build/html/static.

Edit: it's enough with creating the example_thumbs directory first, see discussion below

Am I missing something? I assume this is either (a) something I'm doing wrong, (b) something you decided on purpose, despite being undocumented or (c) a necessary minor annoyance given the current workflow that did not make it to the README.

[mwaskom]

This is probably just something I never noticed because make clean deletes everything in the directory but doesn't remove the directory itself, and it doesn't fail the doc build since sphinx only notifies at the warning level. Not sure what the best way to fix it would be.

[astrojuanlu]

You're right (now I understood after your clarification), it's as simple as creating the example_thumbs directory first. Editing the issue title.