Unable to requestbackport in 19.10: KeyError: 'eoan-backports'

[Hans Joachim Desserud]

I'm trying to request a series of backports (see bug 1827329 for details).

Normally I've marked the codename-backports project as also affected, but since https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBackports talked about `requestbackport` I wanted to use that.

When attempting to run it on 19.10 though, I get the following error message:
$ requestbackport widelands
Ubuntu's backports are not for fixing bugs in stable releases, but for bringing new features to older, stable releases.
See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBackports for the Ubuntu Backports policy and processes.
See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates for the process for fixing bugs in stable releases.
Press [Enter] to continue. Press [Ctrl-C] to abort now.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/requestbackport", line 308, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/bin/requestbackport", line 301, in main
    check_existing(package, destinations)
  File "/usr/bin/requestbackport", line 93, in check_existing
    project = Launchpad.projects[release + '-backports']
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/lazr/restfulclient/resource.py", line 1001, in __getitem__
    raise KeyError(key)
KeyError: 'eoan-backports'

Looking at https://launchpad.net/ubp, it seems that bionic-backports is the latest existing projects. I suspect that might be related to the error I'm getting. I figure I shouldn't be getting an error. Is there a different way to request backports these days?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.10
Package: ubuntu-dev-tools 0.173ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.3.0-23.25-generic 5.3.7
Uname: Linux 5.3.0-23-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sun Nov 17 11:44:51 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-05-17 (184 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 19.10 "Eoan Ermine" - Alpha amd64 (20190516)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: ubuntu-dev-tools
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Mattia Rizzolo (mapreri)]

The backports project in ubuntu is basically in a state where nobody is working on it anymore. I can fix `requestbackport` to error out more nicely in this case, but don't expect anything more.

[Hans Joachim Desserud (hjd)]

Ok, I suspected something like that when I couldn't find a newer -backports project than bionic. A nicer error message would be great. :)

For the package in question there is an offical PPA so although it would be nice to have it in the official archives, the newer version is available.

[Mattia Rizzolo (mapreri)]

https://git.launchpad.net/ubuntu-dev-tools/commit/?id=463d1f63a8d9784f6df072abce5af773ddad1c0c

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-dev-tools - 0.175

---------------
ubuntu-dev-tools (0.175) unstable; urgency=medium

  [ Mattia Rizzolo ]
  * Trust the installed debian-keyring when checking validity of dsc
    signatures.
  * requestbackport:
    + Error out nicely when a tracking project doesn't exist. LP: #1852901
  * d/control: Bump Standards-Version to 4.4.1, no changes needed.

  [ Stefano Rivera ]
  * merge-changelog: rewrite the changelog handling to use python3-debian.

  [ Dan Streetman ]
  * tests/pylint.conf: use jobs=0 to speed up tests.
  * submittodebian: use a context manager while opening a file.
  * d/control: add dependency on python3-lazr.restfulclient.
  * Big refactor/rewrite of the whole archive.py module, together with a
    restracturing of all the pull-pkg-* commands.
  * Unify the logging using the standard python logging module, and remove the
    local ubuntutools.logger module.

 -- Mattia Rizzolo <email address hidden> Sun, 01 Dec 2019 19:36:23 +0100