6.x from i386 to amd64

[Greg Black]

On 2006-10-31, Bill Moran wrote:
> In response to Greg Black <freebsd at mail.gbch.net>:
> > On 2006-10-31, Robert Blayzor wrote:
> > 
> > > Is there a way to upgrade/move an already installed i386 installed 6.1
> > > machine to amd64 without completely reinstalling?  Is there a procedure
> > > to do so?
> > 
> > Having just gone through the migration in the opposite
> > direction, I would ask why you want to do this?
> > 
> > The state of the software out there is disgracefully far from
> > being ready for 64-bit platforms -- after wasting weeks in a
> > vain attempt to get a workable development environment on my
> > amd64 setup, I've just completed a move to i386 (by a fresh
> > install).
> > 
> > I now have a machine that has almost every port I want working
> > and that still gives me considerable performance improvements
> > over the genuine Intel 32-bit boxes I have.
> > 
> > I won't be trying another amd64 setup for at least a couple more
> > years.
> 
> Are there open PRs on this?  We've not had any problems.  Although
> our amd64 deployment is still young, we have several machines humming
> away happily.  Where did you have problems, specifically?

I didn't look for PRs and didn't submit any.  I found that a
very large number of ports that mattered to me were marked i386
only.  You could get a count by searching the Makefiles in ports
for:

    ONLY_FOR_ARCHS= i386

There are several hundred of them.  Since the non-functionality
of these ports on amd64 was already known, there seemed little
point in adding to the noise by sending a PR.

I did write a bit about this as part of a general rant on the
woeful state of current software here:

    http://www.gbch.net/gjb/blog/software/discuss/software-quality.html

Greg