In Eshell, if I run "time cat config.log" from my Emacs build directory, 
it reports that it takes about 7.5s. It also doesn't show *any* output 
until it's completely finished. With my attached patches, it now takes 
about 0.6s and also shows the output iteratively, redisplaying 
periodically so users can see that something is happening.

The other command most likely to be impacted by this is the built-in 
version of "ls". When I run "ls -Al /usr/bin" on my system, I go from 
2.1s before my patch to 1.2s after. Not as big an improvement, but still 
noticeable, and it *feels* a lot faster too with the iterative redisplay.

I don't usually add a NEWS entry for perf improvements, but this one 
seemed notable enough that I figured it was worth tooting my own horn. :)