How to find the PDF version of a Read-the-docs project

Question

What am I not seeing? The RTD features page says:

PDF Generation

When you build your project on RTD, we automatically build a PDF of your project’s documentation. We also build them for every version that you upload, so we can host the PDFs of your latest documentation, as well as your latest stable releases as well.

But how do you find the PDF version? A websearch finds this 2012 blog post where the writer says:

Here, for example, is the url to Django-Tastypie’s PDF docs:

http://media.readthedocs.org/pdf/django-tastypie/latest/django-tastypie.pdf

You can replace django-tastypie with the slug for any Read the Docs project.

However, RTD doesn't permit users to browse the website's directory tree via the URL: http://media.readthedocs.org/pdf/[project slug]/, get's me 403 FORBIDDEN! At least for project CookieCutter.

Answer 1

For security reasons, many websites do not allow you to browse directory listings on the web server; hence the 403.

Anyway, I guess you were looking for these:

• https://media.readthedocs.org/pdf/cookiecutter/latest/cookiecutter.pdf
• https://media.readthedocs.org/pdf/cookiecutter/stable/cookiecutter.pdf

Typically, it should not be necessary to construct this URL yourself. There is a link in the navigation bar of RtD. You just have to know where to find it.

Notice the 'Read the Docs' label at the bottom left of the page (together with the version indicator). Click it and a panel will open.

In the panel, you can select the desired version. The 'PDF' link navigates to the PDF file. The build system of RtD should automatically keep this file up to date with the documentation source.

Note: PDF generation may not work on some websites that host their own copy of RtD. An example is Haskell Stack; see also this question: how to download the docs as PDF