Bug#893754: autopkgtest 5.1 "autopkgtest-default-release" breaks tests that exercise apt

[Steve Langasek]

Package: autopkgtest
Version: 5.1
User: ubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com
Usertags: origin-ubuntu

When autopkgtest 5.2 was recently rolled out to the Ubuntu infrastructure,
various package-manager-related test suites began to fail as a result of the
use of APT::Default-Release introduced in 5.1:

======================================================================
ERROR: test a sources.list file with unicode comments
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/autopkgtest.5IPzS9/build.fFW/src/tests/test_sources_list.py", line 
582, in test_unicode_comments
    d.openCache(lock=False)
  File "/tmp/autopkgtest.5IPzS9/build.fFW/src/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeController.
py", line 211, in openCache
    return self._openCache(lock)
  File "/tmp/autopkgtest.5IPzS9/build.fFW/src/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeController.
py", line 239, in _openCache
    lock)
  File "/tmp/autopkgtest.5IPzS9/build.fFW/src/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeCache.py", 
line 136, in __init__
    apt.Cache.__init__(self, progress)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt/cache.py", line 113, in __init__
    self.open(progress)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt/cache.py", line 164, in open
    self._cache = apt_pkg.Cache(progress)
apt_pkg.Error: E:The value 'bionic' is invalid for APT::Default-Release as such 
a release is not available in the sources

  http://autopkgtest.ubuntu.com/packages/u/ubuntu-release-upgrader/bionic/armhf

So far we've seen test failures from update-manager,
ubuntu-release-upgrader, and snapcraft - none of which are present in
Debian.  It possibly affects all consumers of python-apt (so may affect
python-apt itself, which is present in Debian).  Since python-apt
autopkgtests appear to be passing in Debian according to
<https://ci.debian.net/packages/p/python-apt/unstable/amd64/>, this may be
an Ubuntu-specific problem, or perhaps 5.1 is not yet rolled out to
ci.debian.net?

To unbreak Ubuntu I have reverted the changes from the merge of the pin-v2
branch in our production deployment.

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer                                    http://www.debian.org/
slangasek at ubuntu.com                                     vorlon at debian.org
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