Lori, why are you considering MacPorts? According to their installation web page;
"MacPorts is an easy to use system for compiling, installing, and managing open source software. MacPorts may be conceptually divided into two main parts: the infrastructure, known as MacPorts base, and the set of available ports. A MacPorts port is a set of specifications contained in a Portfile that defines an application, its characteristics, and any files or special instructions required to install it. This allows you to use a single command to tell MacPorts to automatically download, compile, and install applications and libraries".
Although i can think of a couple of scenarios where this might be useful if you are a "power" user. In particular on other unix based systems but macOS especially the new filing system (APFS) introduced in High Sierra does not like having its structure fiddled with.