diff --git a/hscommon/sphinxgen.py b/hscommon/sphinxgen.py
index 7ca48365..35c86c4f 100644
--- a/hscommon/sphinxgen.py
+++ b/hscommon/sphinxgen.py
@@ -9,7 +9,9 @@
 import os.path as op
 import re
 
-from .build import print_and_do, read_changelog_file, filereplace
+from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
+
+from .build import read_changelog_file, filereplace
 
 CHANGELOG_FORMAT = """
 {version} ({date})
@@ -58,5 +60,10 @@ def gen(basepath, destpath, changelogpath, tixurl, confrepl=None, confpath=None,
     filereplace(changelogtmpl, changelog_out, changelog='\n'.join(rendered_logs))
     conf_out = op.join(basepath, 'conf.py')
     filereplace(confpath, conf_out, **confrepl)
-    cmd = 'sphinx-build "{}" "{}"'.format(basepath, destpath)
-    print_and_do(cmd)
+    # We used to call sphinx-build with print_and_do(), but the problem was that the virtualenv
+    # of the calling python wasn't correctly considered and caused problems with documentation
+    # relying on autodoc (which tries to import the module to auto-document, but fail because of
+    # missing dependencies which are in the virtualenv). Here, we do exactly what is done when
+    # calling the command from bash.
+    cmd = load_entry_point('Sphinx', 'console_scripts', 'sphinx-build')
+    cmd(['sphinx-build', basepath, destpath])