I’m not familiar with gnome files, however, instead of macports, consider homebrew. I was a long time Mac ports user until about 12 years ago- brew is great and is more widely used. It also supports installing GUI apps via brew casks- combined with brew files, you can install your complete kit on any computer with just a command. I’ve found homebrew does a LOT less compiling from source since it has precompiled “bottles” available for most things. Good luck!