Misleading error message when adding PPA source

[Ruud Siebierski]

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Please add the exception message to stdout, preferably in all cases where an exception is caught.

When trying to add a ppa source, following error message was displayed

~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
Cannot add PPA: 'ppa:~ubuntu-toolchain-r/ubuntu/test'.
ERROR: '~ubuntu-toolchain-r' user or team does not exist.

After reading code and adding print statements in ppa.py, came to following exception:
 'Error reading https://launchpad.net/api/1.0/~ubuntu-toolchain-r/+archive/ubuntu/test: [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed (_ssl.c:645)'

Exception was thrown by 'get_ppa_info_from_lp(user, ppa)' called in 'get_ppa_info(shortcut)'

This has nothing to do with user or team, but was due to wrong time/date setting on my machine.

Googling found that there are more users with the same problem having a different root-cause (e.g. proxy server settings)

[manuel (boillodmanuel)]

Adding a link to an external issue mentioning this: https://github.com/tmatilai/vagrant-proxyconf/issues/171#issuecomment-626098580

[AlekseyK (tantrido)]

So how to solve? Need to install this:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/git-cola/+question/695751

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.