From de3ace33648f9964a167077c09d5ddfb78d55593 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Stephen Copplestone <stephen@copplestone.de>
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2023 11:54:21 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Added prerequisites checks for the HTML and PDF building
 scripts + info where the output files are created and how to view them.

---
 docs/documentation/buildHTML.sh | 17 +++++++++++++++--
 docs/documentation/buildPDF.sh  | 25 +++++++++++++++++++------
 2 files changed, 34 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/documentation/buildHTML.sh b/docs/documentation/buildHTML.sh
index 05d0a4359..e5c94b2bb 100755
--- a/docs/documentation/buildHTML.sh
+++ b/docs/documentation/buildHTML.sh
@@ -1,2 +1,15 @@
-# Compile html files
-python3 -m sphinx -T -E -b html -d _build/doctrees -D language=en . _build/html
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Check prerequisites
+python3 -c "import sphinx"
+
+# $? Stores the exit value of the last command that was executed.
+if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then
+  # Compile html files
+  python3 -m sphinx -T -E -b html -d _build/doctrees -D language=en . _build/html
+
+  # Output info where the html file is
+  echo -e "\nThe HTML files have been created. Run, e.g., 'firefox _build/html/index.html &' to view the documentation."
+else
+  echo -e "\nError: Could not build the documentation due to import errors in python! Fix them and run the script again."
+fi
diff --git a/docs/documentation/buildPDF.sh b/docs/documentation/buildPDF.sh
index 83fa5e77b..302088238 100755
--- a/docs/documentation/buildPDF.sh
+++ b/docs/documentation/buildPDF.sh
@@ -1,8 +1,21 @@
-# Compile latex files
-python3 -m sphinx -b latex -D language=en -d _build/doctrees . _build/latex
+#!/bin/bash
 
-# Switch to latex source files
-cd _build/latex
+# Check prerequisites
+python3 -c "import sphinx"
 
-# Compile pdf file(s)
-latexmk -r latexmkrc -pdf -f -dvi- -ps- -jobname=piclas -interaction=nonstopmode
+# $? Stores the exit value of the last command that was executed.
+if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then
+  # Compile latex files
+  python3 -m sphinx -b latex -D language=en -d _build/doctrees . _build/latex
+
+  # Switch to latex source files
+  cd _build/latex
+
+  # Compile pdf file(s)
+  latexmk -r latexmkrc -pdf -f -dvi- -ps- -jobname=piclas -interaction=nonstopmode
+
+  # Output info where the pdf file is
+  echo -e "\n The PDF has been created under ./_build/latex/piclas.pdf"
+else
+  echo -e "\nError: Could not build the documentation due to import errors in python! Fix them and run the script again."
+fi