aptitude update 255 exit status, no errors/warnings

Attempting my usual aptitude update and package download today:

aptitude update && aptitude -dy full-upgrade

... I noticed that the full-upgrade didn't run.

Checking aptitude's exit status, I found it was '255', though no errors
were displayed.

Neither strace nor '-v' options (tried multiple to 4-5) provide any more
illumination. I'll omit strace here, but -v output is:

# aptitude -v update; echo "Status: $?"
.
.
.
Hit http://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/non-free amd64
Packages/DiffIndex
Fetched 5,406 B in 13s (407 B/s)

Current status: 0 broken [+0], 77
updates [+0], 16521 new [+0]


Trying apt-get, however, gives:

# apt-get update
.
.
.
Hit http://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/non-free amd64 Packages/DiffIndex
W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian/dists/unstable/Release Unable to find expected entry main/binary-amd64/Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?)

W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian/dists/unreleased/Release Unable to find expected entry main/binary-amd64/Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?)

E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

(I'd added the debian-ports archive a week or so back to try to install
a package since removed from the main archive).

Obvious short-term fix is to remove debian-ports from
/etc/apt/sources.list, but it would seem aptitude's error handling
should also be improved.

Anything else I should note before filing a bug?

--
Dr. Ed Morbius
Chief Scientist
Krell Power Systems Unlimited


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