ppa-copy-packages 2.0.0

Copy Ubuntu PPA packages from one release pocket to another

ppa-copy-packages

Copy published PPA packages from one release pocket to another.

We build a few Debian packages containing various helpful scripts (i.e. the packages have Architecture: all and do not need to be recompiled when system library versions change). We want them to be available for all supported Ubuntu releases. So we upload a version built for the oldest supported LTS release to our PPA and use this script to copy the built packages to all other releases in the same PPA:

ppa-copy-packages -O pov -s xenial -t bionic disco -p pov-admin-tools ...

I do the same thing with gtimelog, which is a pure Python program and also doesn’t need to be recompiled:

ppa-copy-packages -O gtimelog -s xenial -t bionic disco -p gtimelog

And sometimes, when I’m feeling brave, I try this trick with C programs such as pwsafe:

ppa-copy-packages -O mg -s xenial -t bionic disco -p pwsafe

Authentication is taken care of by launchpadlib, which opens a browser window on first run and asks you to log in and authorize its access token (which is stored in the system keyring for your convenience).

Synopsis

$ ppa-copy-packages -h
usage: ppa-copy-packages [-h] [--version] [-v] [-q] [-n] [-w] [-b]
                         [--debug] -O OWNER [-N NAME] -p NAME [NAME ...]
                         -s SERIES -t SERIES [SERIES ...]
                         [--architectures ARCH [ARCH ...]]
                         [--pocket POCKET] [--launchpad-instance INSTANCE]

copy Ubuntu PPA packages from one release pocket to another

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -v, --verbose         More verbose output (can be stacked)
  -q, --quiet           Less verbose output
  -n, --dry-run         Don't make any changes
  -w, --wait            Wait for pending packages to be published
  -b, --browse          Open the PPA page in a browser, don't do anything
                        else.
  --debug               Very verbose logging, for debugging this script

PPA selection:
  -O OWNER, --owner OWNER
                        owner of the PPA
  -N NAME, --name NAME  name of the PPA (default: ppa)
  -p NAME [NAME ...], --packages NAME [NAME ...]
                        names of packages to copy
  -s SERIES, --source-series SERIES
                        source series (e.g. xenial)
  -t SERIES [SERIES ...], --target-series SERIES [SERIES ...]
                        target series (e.g. bionic)
  --architectures ARCH [ARCH ...]
                        architectures to check for published binaries (default
                        is ['i386', 'amd64'])
  --pocket POCKET       pocket name (you probably don't want to change this;
                        default is Release)
  --launchpad-instance INSTANCE
                        Launchpad instance (default: production)

Changelog

2.0.0 (2026-04-30)

• Do not ignore –wait when also using –dry-run; this makes it possible for me to wait until a PPA package is published even if I don’t want to actually copy it anywhere.

• Explicitly depend on launchpadlib[keyring].

• Drop Python 2 compatibility.

• Drop Python < 3.10 compatibility.

1.9.4 (2022-10-21)

• Copy packages one by one to avoid Launchpad timeouts.

• Do not copy the same packages more than once when using –wait.

• Fix TypeError: ‘<’ not supported between instances of ‘str’ and ‘NoneType’ when using –wait.

1.9.3 (2020-10-31)

• Handle ‘needs building’ state when using –wait.

1.9.2 (2020-07-02)

• Fix ValueError: Namespace GnomeKeyring not available (GH #3).

1.9.1 (2019-09-06)

• Fix TypeError: unhashable type: ‘Entry’.

1.9 (2019-09-05)

• First release to PyPI.

• Unified three older scripts I had lying around with hardcoded configuration.

• Replaced hardcoded configuration with command-line arguments.