package.el should be preloaded

package.el should be preloaded

[Glenn Morris]

In startup.el, command-line contains:

  ;; Load ELPA packages.
  (and user-init-file package-enable-at-startup (package-initialize))

where both package-* are autoloaded.

package-enable-at-startup is non-nil by default, so shouldn't
package.el be preloaded, to speed up normal startup?

Re: package.el should be preloaded

[Glenn Morris]

This was briefly mentioned before

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2010-06/msg00634.html

But it is loaded in every normal startup, whether or not I have any
packages installed. Surely it is impossible to tell if I have any
packages to load without loading package.el to search for them; so I
don't see any reason not to preload it.

Re: package.el should be preloaded

[Stefan Monnier]

> This was briefly mentioned before

> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2010-06/msg00634.html

> But it is loaded in every normal startup, whether or not I have any
> packages installed. Surely it is impossible to tell if I have any
> packages to load without loading package.el to search for them; so I
> don't see any reason not to preload it.

I agree we should preload it.  But we should do it by splitting the part
that need to be preloaded into package-hooks.el.


        Stefan

Re: package.el should be preloaded

[Chong Yidong]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> This was briefly mentioned before
>
>> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2010-06/msg00634.html
>
>> But it is loaded in every normal startup, whether or not I have any
>> packages installed. Surely it is impossible to tell if I have any
>> packages to load without loading package.el to search for them; so I
>> don't see any reason not to preload it.
>
> I agree we should preload it.  But we should do it by splitting the part
> that need to be preloaded into package-hooks.el.

I looked into this, but it turns out that most of package.el would need
to be preloaded.  Instead, I tweaked the code startup.el to check more
aggressively for local package directories, so that package.el won't be
loaded if no packages are installed.

Re: package.el should be preloaded

[Stefan Monnier]

> I looked into this, but it turns out that most of package.el would need
> to be preloaded.

That's really strange.  The code needed at startup shouldn't need to be
that large.  Of course, that was part of the reason why I want(ed) all
the job of finding which packages to load in which order to be done
"offline" rather than at startup.

> Instead, I tweaked the code startup.el to check more aggressively for
> local package directories, so that package.el won't be loaded if no
> packages are installed.

It's better than nothing, but we'll need a better answer as soon as
people get used to installing packages, such that the "no installed
package" case becomes rare.


        Stefan

Re: package.el should be preloaded

[Chong Yidong]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> That's really strange.  The code needed at startup shouldn't need to be
> that large.  Of course, that was part of the reason why I want(ed) all
> the job of finding which packages to load in which order to be done
> "offline" rather than at startup.

The total length of package.el is 1642 lines.  Of these, the code
necessary to load and activate packages at startup comes to around 590
lines, or about 16k of memory in the .elc.  (The rest is the code for
downloading and installing, and for the package menu.)

Splitting package.el is certainly doable, but all it will save us is
around 30k.  I'm not sure it's worth it.