Documentation: the example for configuration raises an AttributeError

Page http://docs.pyinvoke.org/en/latest/concepts/configuration.html, the following code example...

from invoke import Collection, ctask as task

@task
def clean(ctx, target=None):
    ctx.run("rm -rf {0}".format(target or ctx.sphinx.target))

@task
def build(ctx, target=None):
    ctx.run("sphinx-build docs {0}".format(target or ctx.sphinx.target))

ns = Collection(clean, build)
ns.configure({'sphinx': {'target': "docs/_build"}})

... returns: AttributeError: 'Context' object has no attribute 'sphinx'

[jenisys]

Which version of invoke are you using ?
I first used invoke-0.9.0 from pypi and ran into similar problems.
When I used the Github repository tip (which also says its version is 0.9.0), the problems were gone.
NOTE: I am not quite sure if they are completely gone, but they are solved in most cases.

I was using the pypi version.

Now, I have followed your advice and installed from Git.

Configuring by namespace works, i.e. the code below executes properly:

from invoke import Collection, ctask as task

@task
def clean(ctx, target=None):
    ctx.run("echo CLEANING {0}".format(target or ctx.sphinx.target))

@task
def build(ctx, target=None):
    ctx.run("echo BUILDING {0}".format(target or ctx.sphinx.target))

ns = Collection(clean, build)
ns.configure({'sphinx': {'target': "docs/_build"}})

But configuring by invoke.yaml or invoke.py files still raises an error:

# file: .../deploy_tools/tasks.py
from invoke import Collection, ctask as task

@task
def clean(ctx, target=None):
    ctx.run("echo CLEANING {0}".format(target or ctx.sphinx.target))

@task
def build(ctx, target=None):
    ctx.run("echo BUILDING {0}".format(target or ctx.sphinx.target))

ns = Collection(clean, build)
#ns.configure({'sphinx': {'target': "docs/_build"}})

# file: .../deploy_tools/invoke.yaml
sphinx:
    target: built_docs

$ invoke clean
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/data/webapps/tdd/invoke-master/invoke/config.py", line 55, in __getattr__
    return self._get(key)
  File "/data/webapps/tdd/invoke-master/invoke/config.py", line 97, in _get
    value = self.config[key]
  File "/data/webapps/tdd/invoke-master/invoke/config.py", line 94, in __getitem__
    return self._get(key)
  File "/data/webapps/tdd/invoke-master/invoke/config.py", line 97, in _get
    value = self.config[key]
KeyError: 'sphinx'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/data/webapps/tdd/env/bin/invoke", line 9, in <module>
    load_entry_point('invoke==0.9.0', 'console_scripts', 'invoke')()
  File "/data/webapps/tdd/invoke-master/invoke/cli.py", line 352, in main
    dispatch(sys.argv)
  File "/data/webapps/tdd/invoke-master/invoke/cli.py", line 345, in dispatch
    return executor.execute(*tasks)
  File "/data/webapps/tdd/invoke-master/invoke/executor.py", line 98, in execute
    task=task, name=name, args=args, kwargs=kwargs, config=config
  File "/data/webapps/tdd/invoke-master/invoke/executor.py", line 148, in _execute
    result = task(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/data/webapps/tdd/invoke-master/invoke/tasks.py", line 111, in __call__
    result = self.body(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/data/webapps/tdd/deploy_tools/tasks.py", line 5, in clean
    ctx.run("echo CLEANING {0}".format(target or ctx.sphinx.target))
  File "/data/webapps/tdd/invoke-master/invoke/config.py", line 65, in __getattr__
    raise AttributeError(err)
AttributeError: No attribute or config key found for 'sphinx'

Valid keys: ['run', 'tasks']

Valid real attributes: ['from_data', 'run']

[bitprophet]

Two quick things:

1. The docs at /en/latest always apply to git, as you've found. I just poked at our doc host to make sure it's defaulting to the latest stable version instead of 'latest', though - that was an oversight on our part.
2. I tested out the new config stuff a bunch, but it's not in the wild yet so this might be a legitimate bug, I will set aside time to verify in the near future. Thanks!

[gtback]

I am seeing the same behavior as @mlindemann (using current master - c61f1bd).

I have a tasks.py with the same content. When the ns.configure({'sphinx': {'target': "docs/_build"}}) line is uncommented, both inv build and inv clean work as expected; so does passing a custom target with the -t flag.

Once I comment out the line, and add the corresponding invoke.yaml file, inv clean and inv build raise the same error as @mlindemann:

AttributeError: No attribute or config key found for 'sphinx'

Valid keys: ['run', 'tasks']

Valid real attributes: ['from_data', 'run']

I am able to explicitly pass the file name with the -f flag, (i.e. inv -f invoke.yaml clean does work). This is my first time looking at the Invoke code, but I'll see if I can track down why this is happening.

[gtback]

From what I've been able to tell, the code here does not have a project_home set, so none of those variables get set and _load_file exits here because _project_prefix is None.

I'm not sure the best place to fix this, however. I'll look more into how the loader works and how the Config object gets instantiated tomorrow if I get a chance.

[jw]

I agree, this is related to issue #234.

[bitprophet]

Yea this sounds same as #234, let's roll it into there.