docs: def handle_includes(defns):
      '''Recursive handling of includes for any input list of defns.
      The assumption here is that when an include is handled by the
      pyyaml reader, it adds them as a list, which is stands apart from the rest
      of the expected YAML definitions.
      '''
      newdefns = []
      for d in defns:
          if isinstance(d,list):
              newdefns.extend(handle_includes(d))
          else:
              newdefns.append(d)
  
      return newdefns