Fix broken build docs tests run with GitHub Actions

[bartlettroscoe]

While working on PR #591, I ran into the failing GitHub Actions run tests TriBITS_build_docs and TriBITS_build_sphinx_docs as shown here for example. Looking at the failed tests here you see:

Generating git version

fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.

and that leads to the failure of all of the documents:

Generating TribitsUsersGuide.html ...
TribitsUsersGuide.rst:7: (WARNING/2) Cannot extract empty bibliographic field "Version".
Cleaning intermediate files ...
/home/runner/work/TriBITS/TriBITS/tribits/doc/guides

and

Generating TribitsBuildReference.html ...
TribitsBuildReference.rst:8: (WARNING/2) Cannot extract empty bibliographic field "Version".

We see similar errors in nightly testing like here showing:

Generating TribitsUsersGuide.html ...
TribitsUsersGuide.rst:7: (WARNING/2) Cannot extract empty bibliographic field "Version".
Cleaning intermediate files ...

but somehow the tests still pass.

In any case, the changes in this PR makes those tests pass, but git describe is still not creating the correct version info and seems to be missing the tags. But at least the repo SHA1 will be provided in the generated document.

[rabartlett1972]

The build docs tests all pass and now show no error in generating the version info. For example, here shows:

Generating git version

We can't see what the TribitsGitVersion.txt file shows but hopefully it is okay. (We will see once the docs are deployed.)

[bartlettroscoe]

FYI: Note that the GHA job to deploy the sphinx versions of the documents produced the correct version info:

• Date: 2023-07-26
• Version: tribits_start-3308-g8c1874ca

for all three documents:

• https://tribitspub.github.io/TriBITS/users_guide/index.html
• https://tribitspub.github.io/TriBITS/maintainers_guide/index.html
• https://tribitspub.github.io/TriBITS/build_ref/index.html

So whatever is messing up the git describe command for the tests TriBITS_build_docs and TriBITS_build_sphinx_docs run under GitHub Actions, it does not seem to be impacting the GitHub Action that builds and deploys these documents.

Hum, but it seems that the older DocUtils deployment is not working. The most recent document:

• https://tribits.org/doc/TribitsUsersGuide.html

is showing:

• Date: 2023-06-30
• Version: tribits_start-3304-g9111399

I will try to debug what is happening.

Update: With the loss of my Windows Laptop, I have lost my ability to log into the server that runs tribits.org. I can get back my access but I will wait until I get my new Windows laptop and then try to set this up again.