From: Mauricio Fernandez <mfp@...>
Date: 2007-02-06T18:57:45+09:00
Subject: Re: Multiple "require" calls -> app slow to start

On Tue, Feb 06, 2007 at 05:10:58PM +0900, Philippe Lang wrote:
> More and more files are being added to my client ruby application, and
> it is getting quite slow to start, even on a fast machine. It takes
> about 15 seconds in some cases.
> 
> The problem is with the call to "require" for the application
> "workspace" object. This "require" points to files which in turn call
> "require" for other files, and so on.
> 
> Is there a way to speed up the application load time maybe?

Are you loading files managed by RubyGems?
RubyGems' #require implementation is known to be very slow. Things playing
against you include:
* required files from many different gems
* lots of installed gems

You can try to uninstall some gems (for instance unused, old versions), or
hardcode the require paths:

  prefix = "/usr/local"
  %w[foo-0.1.1/lib bar-0.1/lib].each do |dir|
    $:.unshift "#{prefix}/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/#{dir}"
  end

Another thing that can help (in general, not only when you're using RubyGems)
is lazy loading using Kernel#autoload.

-- 
Mauricio Fernandez  -   http://eigenclass.org   -  singular Ruby