Emacs very slow, how to investigate

Emacs very slow, how to investigate

[Julien Cubizolles]

After running for a few hours, Emacs becomes sluggish, to the point that
it takes several seconds to move the focus from one window to the other,
with switch-window (keyboard or mouse). I'm running GNU Emacs 24.4.50.1
(x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.10.8), my typical workflow includes
latex-mode org-mode gnus helm.

Has anyone seen something similar ? How can I investigate ?

Julien.

Re: Emacs very slow, how to investigate

[Dan Espen]

Julien Cubizolles <j.cubizolles@free.fr> writes:

> After running for a few hours, Emacs becomes sluggish, to the point that
> it takes several seconds to move the focus from one window to the other,
> with switch-window (keyboard or mouse). I'm running GNU Emacs 24.4.50.1
> (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.10.8), my typical workflow includes
> latex-mode org-mode gnus helm.
>
> Has anyone seen something similar ? How can I investigate ?

Haven't seen it, but I'd start by examining how much memory and CPU
Emacs is using.

The command line tool "top" is good enough.
Take memory readings just after start up then
when things slow down.  Look for memory use creeping up.

-- 
Dan Espen

Re: Emacs very slow, how to investigate

[Stefan Monnier]

> Has anyone seen something similar ? How can I investigate ?

M-x profiler-start RET RET
...
M-x profiler-report RET
C-u RET on the first "+" to open it up.


        Stefan

Re: Emacs very slow, how to investigate

[Julien Cubizolles]

Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> writes:

> Julien Cubizolles <j.cubizolles@free.fr> writes:
>
>> After running for a few hours, Emacs becomes sluggish, to the point that
>> it takes several seconds to move the focus from one window to the other,
>> with switch-window (keyboard or mouse). I'm running GNU Emacs 24.4.50.1
>> (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.10.8), my typical workflow includes
>> latex-mode org-mode gnus helm.
>>
>> Has anyone seen something similar ? How can I investigate ?
>
> Haven't seen it, but I'd start by examining how much memory and CPU
> Emacs is using.
>
> The command line tool "top" is good enough.
> Take memory readings just after start up then
> when things slow down.  Look for memory use creeping up.

I finally could track it down. Whenever emacs was crawling the process
hud-service was also at 100% cpu. This manages the Heads-Up-Display
feature of Ubuntu Unity. I ditched Ubuntu Unity for gnome-shell and now
Emacs doesn't freezes anymore !

Julien.