software-properties-gtk removes [arch=amd64]

[Dark Dragon]

When editing apt sources via software-properties-gtk, additional options like [arch=amd64] are removed. With more and more repositories deprecating i386, this problem becomes more and more important.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please answer these questions:
* Is this reproducible?
* If so, what specific steps should we take to recreate this bug?

This will help us to find and resolve the problem.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

How do you create the sources with those arch specific tag?

[Dark Dragon (darkdragon-001)]

Create via

$ echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu focal stable" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list

Distribution upgrade disables all third-party sources and adds a comment. When I use software-properties-gtk to remove the comment, the "[arch=amd64]" addition is no longer in the file.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for software-properties (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Dark Dragon (darkdragon-001)]

Can someone please reopen this? I provided the necessary details for producibility...

[James C. (jfw01)]

I've independently discovered this and reported it here:
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/software-properties-gtk-erases-options-single-line-software-sources-and-does-not-revert-them-b

The right fix depends on:
- whether software-properties should cope with source options which are not known to it
-- if so, it will have to store either the whole option string or the unknown portion

- whether software-properties is intended to be mechanism for editing source options, or if that's an extra for experts who will have to use a text editor

- how software-properties is intended to interact with DEB822 sources (man sources.list(5)), which it currently ignores