ModuleNotFoundError in tracebacks with Python3.6 on linux

Question

I installed Python 3.6 on Ubuntu 16.04 by using Jonathon Fernyhough's PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/python-3.6
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3.6

I made a string, using the new literal string interpolation, but I supplied an invalid format specifier. I not only got the expected ValueError: Invalid format specifier, but also the unexpected ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'apt_pkg'.

$ python3.6
Python 3.6.0 (default, Dec 29 2016, 21:40:36) 
[GCC 5.4.1 20161202] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> value = 4 * 20
>>> f'the value is {value:%A}'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: Invalid format specifier
Error in sys.excepthook:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport_python_hook.py", line 63, in apport_excepthook
    from apport.fileutils import likely_packaged, get_recent_crashes
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/__init__.py", line 5, in <module>
    from apport.report import Report
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/report.py", line 30, in <module>
    import apport.fileutils
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/fileutils.py", line 23, in <module>
    from apport.packaging_impl import impl as packaging
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/packaging_impl.py", line 23, in <module>
    import apt
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
    import apt_pkg
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'apt_pkg'

Original exception was:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: Invalid format specifier

I reported this to the Python bug tracker. There it was noted that:

It seems to be vendor's issue not CPython itself. This same issue also happens in Ubuntu 16.10's Python 3.6. Raise any exception can cause this:

Python 3.6.0b2 (default, Oct 11 2016, 05:27:10) 
[GCC 6.2.0 20161005] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> raise Exception
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
Exception
Error in sys.excepthook:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport_python_hook.py", line 63, in apport_excepthook
    from apport.fileutils import likely_packaged, get_recent_crashes
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/__init__.py", line 5, in <module>
    from apport.report import Report
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/report.py", line 30, in <module>
    import apport.fileutils
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/fileutils.py", line 23, in <module>
    from apport.packaging_impl import impl as packaging
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/packaging_impl.py", line 23, in <module>
    import apt
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
    import apt_pkg
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'apt_pkg'

Original exception was:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
Exception
>>> 

Also see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/python3.6/+bug/1631367.

Finally, the issue was closed with the comment

Yes, this appears to be the vendor's failure reporting infrastructure that is failing. Why they'd want a report for every traceback at the interactive prompt is beyond me, but that appears to be what they are trying to do.

My questions now are:

1. How do I interpret this comment? Is the vendor in this case Jonathon Fernyhough's PPA? And did he change something to to the Python code he distributes so that it tries to file a report for every Exception that produces a traceback?
2. Who do I need to notify or where do I need to file a bug to get this resolved?

Answer 1

I solved this issue for Python 3.6 by first installing the python-apt package for Python 3:

sudo apt install python3-apt

After that, I changed to the dist-packages directory and copied the apt_pkg[...].so file to the new default file name apt_pkg.so, to be also recognized by Python 3.6:

cd /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages
sudo cp apt_pkg.cpython-34m-i386-linux-gnu.so apt_pkg.so

Now all ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'apt_pkg' exceptions disappeared on expectedly thrown error messages.