Testing docs in a bazel module requires C++ compiler to build protobuf due to stardoc dependency

[peakschris]

When I test docs in rules_oci it fails unless I have a C++ compiler configured on my windows system.
Once I have provided one testing docs takes several minutes whilst protobuf is compiled.
Can the tool that is being built be simplified so that it does not require so much time & local tooling just to validate some docs?

[tetromino]

Interesting point. I think the solution might be along the lines of defining a custom proto_toolchain which would use a pre-compiled protoc binary; and I think you'd need to define this in your own repo (where you are running doc tests) because stardoc itself shouldn't be forcing a non-standard proto toolchain onto everyone that depends on it.

If you or anyone else figures out the right way to do this, I would be very happy to add it to Stardoc's docs :)

[jjmaestro]

I hit this too. Following @tetromino's pre-compiled-protoc idea, I dug in (with Claude) and it's very doable: since protobuf 33.4 you can use protobuf's bundled prebuilt protoc via --@protobuf//bazel/toolchains:prefer_prebuilt_protoc and --incompatible_enable_proto_toolchain_resolution, plus a tiny empty CC toolchain for java_binary's launcher resolution. All done with changes in the consumer module, nothing in Stardoc.

I've now pushed #313 which adds a docs page and a CI test/no_cc_toolchain example that renders Stardoc's own rule docs with no CC toolchain. Let me know if you like it!