It looks like at least some of this changed between Bionic and Cosmic - here with a netplan 0.39:
root@netplan:~# netplan apply Error in network definition /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml line 5 column 0: unknown key xxnetwork root@netplan:~# echo $? 78 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1701434 Title: netplan apply always exits with status 0 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/netplan/+bug/1701434/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs