it seems it's still possible to access the backports through archive.debian.org.
Is there a same thing for devuan?

Packages that we don't change can be downloaded from archive.debian.org and installed manually. Don't add the repo.

Packages that we do change can be found here. You have to know what version you want. The Packages.gz file for jessie-backports is empty, so I'm not even sure if the packages you find in pool will be for jessie-backports.
https://pkgmaster.devuan.org/devuan/pool/

I'll see if I can find out more.

No more jessie-backports or jessie-updates. Just jessie and jessie-security still work.

Thanks for clearing that up, fsmithred.

I understand that debian have also "archived" the jessie variant. However, it seems it's still possible to access the backports through archive.debian.org.
Is there a same thing for devuan?

It probably should be possible to add archive.debian.org to sources.list, than create a blacklist for all devuan-blacklisted or modified packages,
but I was wondering if there is an easier way.

I do realize that jessie is entering the "deprecated any day now" phase, but the reason backports may be needed is some jessie systems may still require something installed which is only available in backports. Zfs-dkms, to name just one example.

Please let me know if there's an"devuan-endorsed" way of still accessing jessie-backports.

If not, so be it, we are all eagerly awaiting the release of beowulf anyway.

EDIT: Please note, this is not an "emergency support request", everything's working as stable as is usual for devuan, security updates pulling in fine, etc.

I noticed I have lots of packages suddenly listed as "local" in apt/synaptic,
than after some inspection it seems most of them are from backports, which
seems to be no longer available.

For example zfs-dkms, originally from backports, now is shown as local

# apt search zfs-dkms
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
zfs-dkms/now 0.6.5.9-5~bpo8+1 all [installed,local]
  OpenZFS filesystem kernel modules for Linux

Sources list for backports is:

# cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jessie-backports.list 
deb http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie-backports non-free contrib main 
deb-src http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie-backports non-free contrib main 

Searching on pkginfo.devuan.org shows that zfs-dkms is not even present for jessie.

https://pkginfo.devuan.org/cgi-bin/d1pk … ase=jessie

zfs-dkms is just an example of a package which I am 100% sure I have not built locally but installed from backports. Same is happening to many other packages.

Is this expected behaviour due to jessie becoming deprecated,
or did I screw something up?

Updates for non-backported packages are coming in as expected.

edit: typo