During Migration to Arm64 mac, should I null out archs='x86_64' from installed ports list?

[Chris Jones]

Hi,

Speaking only for myself, I generally suggest *not* using the 
restore_ports.tcl script. When I migrate to a new OS I generate the list 
of installed ports *and* requested ones, and follow the instructions as 
far as wi[ping out my old ports prior to the update.

However, when restoring the ports I prefer to just manually do this. If 
you just open up the list of requested ports, in whatever text reader 
you prefer, its usually a quite short list (much shorter than all 
installed) and its a short job to go through and reinstall by hand 
whatever you still want. When you do this it will not try and preserve 
the same variants as before, unless you actively request them, and I 
find this a good idea as default variant sometimes get updated so just 
using the same as before is not always the best idea.

This is not to say you still will not have issues with the new Arm arch, 
as for sure some ports will have issues with that. But at least you will 
not have issues because of old settings that should no longer be preserved.

Chris

On 12/04/2022 3:10 am, Jim DeLaHunt wrote:
> Hello, MacPorts folks:
> 
> I am following the MacPorts wiki "Migration"[1] instructions as I move 
> from a macOS 10.14.6 Mojave machine with an intel CPU to a macOS 13.1 
> Monterey machine with an arm64 CPU. I got stuck with a bug in the tiff 
> port, which fails during destroot under the +universal variant. I opened 
> a ticket[2] against tiff +universal on arm64, but that is not my 
> question here.
> 
> I don't know why MacPorts was trying to install tiff with the +universal 
> variant. I am following the Migration instructions. They have me make a 
> list of installed ports using `port -qv installed`. None of these 
> entries mention "requested_variants='+universal'". 91% have an empty 
> string for requested variants. 9% request some other variant. However, 
> two-thirds mention "archs='x86_64'", while the other one-third mention 
> "archs='noarch'", and none have empty strings or some other value for 
> "archs". I use the restore_ports.tcl script to install the ports on the 
> new computer.
> 
> Here are four representative entries from my list of installed ports:
> 
>    aalib @1.4rc5_5 (active) requested_variants='' platform='darwin 18' archs='x86_64' date='2021-08-30T13:16:05-0700'
>    abcde @2.9.3_1 (active) requested_variants='' platform='darwin 18' archs='noarch' date='2022-01-23T21:52:02-0800'
>    apr-util @1.6.1_2+no_bdb (active) requested_variants='+no_bdb' platform='darwin 18' archs='x86_64' date='2021-08-30T13:16:21-0700'
>    aspell @0.60.8_1 (active) requested_variants='-nls' platform='darwin 18' archs='x86_64' date='2021-08-30T13:34:34-0700'
> 
> Might the presence of "archs='x86_64'" cause the restore_ports.tcl 
> script to ask for +universal variants on the new computer?
> 
> Should I perhaps null out the value "x86_64" from the archs entries in 
> my installed ports list?  i.e. turn them into "archs='' "? Or should I 
> replace them with the value "arm64"?
> 
> I don't see any mention in the Migration instructions about modifying 
> "archs" entries when migrating from one architecture to another.
> 
> [1] <https://trac.macports.org/wiki/Migration>
> [2] <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/64933>, tiff at 4.3.0_0+universal: 
> Failed to destroot tiff, "libtiff-4.pc differs"
> 
> -- 
> .    --Jim DeLaHunt, Vancouver, Canada
>