[update-maintainer] No Maintainer field found in ./debian/control.

Here's a test case for this bug.

The problem is that python-debian (debian.deb822.Deb822.iter_paragraphs()) doesn't support comments in debian/control. It crashed if I want to print the paragraphs in Control.__init__ (ubuntutools/control.py):

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "ubuntu-dev-tools/update-maintainer", line 43, in <module>
    main()
  File "ubuntu-dev-tools/update-maintainer", line 40, in main
    sys.exit(update_maintainer(options.debian_directory, not options.quiet))
  File "ubuntu-dev-tools/ubuntutools/update_maintainer.py", line 67, in update_maintainer
    control = Control(control_file)
  File "ubuntu-dev-tools/ubuntutools/control.py", line 47, in __init__
    print paragraph
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/debian/deb822.py", line 348, in __str__
    return self.dump()
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/debian/deb822.py", line 387, in dump
    value = self.get_as_string(key)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/debian/deb822.py", line 362, in get_as_string
    return unicode(self[key])
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/debian/deb822.py", line 173, in __getitem__
    value = self.__parsed[key]
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/debian/deb822.py", line 57, in __getitem__
    raise KeyError(key)
KeyError: '# This file is autogenerated. DO NOT EDIT!\n'

This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-dev-tools - 0.121

---------------
ubuntu-dev-tools (0.121) unstable; urgency=low

  [ Daniel Holbach ]
  * harvest, setup.py: install tool that queries Harvest for information
    about open opportunities for a given source package.

  [ Stefano Rivera ]
  * ubuntutools.archive.rmadison: suite can be None, handle this correctly.
  * pull-debian-debdiff: Convert distance to an integer, so it works when
    specified.
  * sponsor-patch, doc/sponsorpatch.1: Clarify that --upload or --workdir is
    required. (LP: #712721)
  * Drop Breaks: ${python:Breaks}, no longer used by dh_python2.

  [ Benjamin Drung ]
  * ubuntutools.update-maintainer: Do not use python-debian to parse
    debian/control to avoid mangling this file (LP: #756373). The new
    simplified parser has no problems with comments in debian/control
    (LP: #701487, #713827).
  * doc/setup-packaging-environment.1: Fix typo.
  * Bump Standards-Version to 3.9.2 (no changes required).
  * Drop transitional qemu-kvm-extras-static from alternative suggests.

  [ Ted Gould ]
  * lp-project-upload: Use a milestone that already exists if there is
    one to use.
 -- Benjamin Drung <email address hidden> Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:05:30 +0000

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