Docs for deleted branch still being around

[The-Compiler]

Details

• Read the Docs project URL: https://pytest.readthedocs.io/ / https://docs.pytest.org/
• Build URL (if applicable): https://docs.pytest.org/en/reorganize-docs/
• Read the Docs username (if applicable): The-Compiler

A couple of years ago, we created a reorganize-docs branch, trying to restructure our documentation. Even after deleting the branch and removing it as version from RTD, the docs are still around at the build URL above:

Even trying to add a redirect to the main docs doesn't seem to have any effect. As a result, people often accidentally refer to 6 year old docs, because those links seem to often show up in Google search results:

pytest-dev/pytest#4115 (comment)
pytest-dev/pytest#8094
pytest-dev/pytest#8665 (comment)

etc. etc.

We've agreed to delete that branch:

pytest-dev/pytest#4120
pytest-dev/pytest#8098

And from what I (and other admins) can see, it doesn't show up anywhere in the admin panel anymore.

Expected Result

The docs being gone, and/or us being able to delete them somewhere in the admin panel, and/or a redirect working.

Actual Result

Zombie docs 😱

[stsewd]

Hi, sorry about that, this is likely happened when we migrated from cloud providers. I have deleted the old docs from our storage, cache should be purged in 2 hours max.

[The-Compiler]

Thanks @stsewd for the quick fix! I'm hoping this will help to make those disappear from search results.

I'm now trying to add a redirect for those:

but e.g. https://docs.pytest.org/en/reorganize-docs/index.html doesn't redirect as expected. Is that due to something still being around, or am I doing something wrong there?

[stsewd]

@The-Compiler you need to use an exact redirect instead. /en/reorganize-docs/$rest -> /en/6.2.x/

https://docs.readthedocs.io/en/stable/user-defined-redirects.html#exact-redirects

[stsewd]

a prefix redirect is used when you have migrated your docs from another service.

[The-Compiler]

Ah, that makes sense!

I should've guessed there's some great documentation about the admin interface somewhere, but it wasn't obvious to me that's in a totally separate place, and not linked from the explanations on the page. I opened a PR to fix that: #8308.

Thanks for all the help! 👍