Just a heads up for anyone considering using this method - set aside lots of free time.
One of the biggest issues I ran in to was this step #11 :
portmaster `cat ~/installed-port-list`
Besides the fact it failing the initial build process 10 times (massive failures in
archivers/xz,
archivers/unzip), it did not install the correct versions of my previous ports.
For example :
databases/mysql51-server --> installed MySQL 5.5
mail/dovecot --> installed Dovecot 2.x
lang/python26 --> installed python26 and 27 (even though I have no ports than depend on either version)
... and the list goes on.
I had to pretty much deinstall half my ports and install the correct versions when everything was finished.
All the ports installed correctly (without errors) when I did them manually.
If your upgrading the OS, you may want to consider option #2 :
Alternatively you could use portmaster -a -f -D to do an ``in place''
update of your ports. If that process is interrupted for any reason you
can use portmaster -a -f -D -R to avoid rebuilding ports already rebuilt
on previous runs.