[NTG-context] Re: Processing time

[NTG-context] Re: Processing time

[Wolfgang Schuster]

Am 20.06.2025 um 12:42 schrieb John Was:
> Hello
> 
> I am using a very short experimental file of five pages to acquaint 
> myself with ConTexT, and find that processing takes a long time (over a 
> minute or sometimes over two minutes) because at every run it is 
> checking on paths etc. - mainly verifying and searching for fonts.
> 
> Is there some way to prevent this, either by a command within the file 
> or by giving something after -- when I invoke ConText (which I do from 
> the Windows command line)?
> 
> I shall paste below a short section of a very long log (1452 lines) so 
> that ConTexperts can see what I mean.
> 
> Best wishes
> 
> John *🇪🇺 * Слава Україні!*🇺🇦
> *
> 
> system          >
> system          > ConTeXt  ver: 2025.02.28 18:12 LMTX  fmt: 2025.6.8 
>   int: english/english
> system          >
> system          > 'cont-new.mkxl' loaded
> open source     > level 1, order 1, name 'C:/texlive/2025/texmf-dist/ 
> tex/context/base/mkxl/cont-new.mkxl'
> system          > beware: some patches loaded from cont-new.mkiv
> close source    > level 1, order 1, name 'C:/texlive/2025/texmf-dist/ 
> tex/context/base/mkxl/cont-new.mkxl'
> system          > 'cont-sys.mkxl' loaded
> open source     > level 1, order 2, name 'C:/texlive/2025/texmf-dist/ 
> tex/context/texlive/cont-sys.mkxl'
> close source    > level 1, order 2, name 'C:/texlive/2025/texmf-dist/ 
> tex/context/texlive/cont-sys.mkxl'
> system          > files > jobname './GHILexp', input './GHILexp.tex', 
> result './GHILexp'
> fonts           > latin modern fonts are not preloaded
> languages       > language 'en' is active
> open source     > level 1, order 3, name './GHILexp.tex'
> fonts           > checks > registering extra script 'auto'
> fonts           > preloading latin modern fonts (second stage)
> fonts           > 'fallback modern rm 12pt' is loaded
> backend         > profiles > setting format 'pdf/ua-2' to 'pdf/ua-2'
> backend         > profiles > forcing pdf version 2.0, compression level 
> 3, object compression level 3
> backend         > profiles > permitted colorspaces: rgb 'yes', cmyk 'yes'
> colors          > defining > supported models: gray 'true', rgb 'true', 
> cmyk 'true', spot 'true'
> transparencies  > support > transparency is supported
> viewerlayers    > viewerlayers are not supported
> backend         > xmp > using file 'C:/texlive/2025/texmf-dist/tex/ 
> context/base/mkiv/lpdf-pua.xml'
> open source     > level 2, order 4, name 'D:/TEXFILES/TEXINPUT/TEXDOCS/ 
> UNIDEFS/uhyphens.tex'
> close source    > level 2, order 4, name 'D:/TEXFILES/TEXINPUT/TEXDOCS/ 
> UNIDEFS/uhyphens.tex'

Why is uhyphens.tex loaded and what is its content?

> structure       > sectioning > chapter @ level 2 : 0.1 -> The rain in 
> Spain...
> fonts           > defining > font 'BaskervilleMTPro-Regular', feature 
> 'locl', script 'latn', no language 'dflt'
> fonts           > names > font database has mismatching configuration 
> and file hashes

Show your font setup, something is wrong with it and triggers a refresh 
of the database.

Wolfgang

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[NTG-context] Re: Processing time

[Hans Hagen]

On 6/20/2025 4:06 PM, John Was wrote:
> Dear Wolfgang
> 
> Both of these process very quickly - 2 seconds for each separately, and 
> less than that if I put the Baskerville definition plus simple text 
> after the default Comp. Modern text.

on a bit recent machine (say 5 years old) a simple few page run with 
lation modern should run way below a second and unless you do complex 
stuff performance should be some 30-40 pages per second .. if not, there 
is an issue with your installation

Hans

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                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
               Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
        tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl
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[NTG-context] Re: Processing time

[Henning Hraban Ramm]

Am 20.06.25 um 17:22 schrieb Hans Hagen:
> On 6/20/2025 4:06 PM, John Was wrote:
>> Dear Wolfgang
>>
>> Both of these process very quickly - 2 seconds for each separately, 
>> and less than that if I put the Baskerville definition plus simple 
>> text after the default Comp. Modern text.
> 
> on a bit recent machine (say 5 years old) a simple few page run with 
> lation modern should run way below a second and unless you do complex 
> stuff performance should be some 30-40 pages per second .. if not, there 
> is an issue with your installation

E.g. if TEXINPUT is set to a big tree, TeX will look through that for 
every file. (I had TEXINPUT.lualatex set for a LaTeX project and it 
increased processing time with that engine by minutes.)

Hraban
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[NTG-context] Re: Processing time

[Hans Hagen]

On 6/22/2025 6:03 PM, John Was wrote:
> Yes, it's an odd thing - even odder now since the last two runs have 
> been much faster.  This without any intervention from me.  It will be 
> interesting to see what happens when I switch off and resume tomorrow.  
> But it's not a serious issue for me at the moment since I'm only using 
> the machine to experiment with various features of the program.

just try this after a fresh start:

context --make

context --make

and note the difference in reported time ... the operating system caches 
files and programs like tex benefits from this

in the past when running on a network share - in most cases we use(d) 
opensuse linux servers - using e.g. installations like texlive was 
basically impossible due to the size which is why we had the minimal 
distributions, also for pdfex/mkii; i think that over time kpse lookups 
improved a bit but is is one of the reasons why we had agressive caching 
in the runners (texexec etc) just so to limit the number of nested 
kpsewhich database loading overhead and kept startup time bearable

in the meantime startup time of a context run in lmtx should be below .5 
seconds and that includes the runner as well as the engine (and on 
modern systems below .25 sec but i can't check that as i only have 
laptop hardware pre 2018 to test on)

Hans

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                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
               Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
        tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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