AuCTeX startup is slow

Question

I have Emacs 24.4 with AuCTeX 11.88, running on windows 8.1, on a strong computer.

Any time I run emacs, opening the first tex file takes 6 seconds, even if the tex file empty. This happens either when the tex file is the first file I open, or if emacs is already running (on a non-tex file). Opening a large non-tex file is very fast. This is why I suspect the culprit is AuCTeX. Opening the second tex file is also fast, even if I close the first tex file.

I ran the cpu profiler to see where most time is spent:

- command-execute                                                  44  70%
 - call-interactively                                              44  70%
  - find-file                                                      27  43%
   - find-file-noselect                                            27  43%
    - find-file-noselect-1                                         27  43%
     - after-find-file                                             27  43%
      - normal-mode                                                25  40%
       - funcall                                                   25  40%
         - set-auto-mode                                           25  40%
          - set-auto-mode-0                                        25  40%
           - tex-mode                                              24  38%
            - apply                                                21  33%
             - TeX-tex-mode                                        21  33%
              - latex-mode                                         15  24%
               - apply                                             15  24%
                - TeX-latex-mode                                   15  24%
                 + LaTeX-common-initialization                      6   9%
                 + byte-code                                        3   4%
                 + LaTeX-maybe-install-toolbar                      2   3%
                 + file-truename                                    1   1%
                 + custom-declare-variable                          1   1%
                 + defvar                                           1   1%
                 + TeX-run-mode-hooks                               1   1%
              + byte-code                                           5   8%
              + file-truename                                       1   1%
            + byte-code                                             3   4%
      + run-hooks                                                   2   3%
  - menu-find-file-existing                                        16  25%
   - find-file-read-args                                           16  25%
    - read-file-name                                               16  25%
       read-file-name-default                                      16  25%

Check the disccusion here. If that applies to you, install the latest version from ELPA and see if that helps. — Arash Esbati, Jun 25 '15 at 20:05
All I could find is the file auctex-11.88.6.tar which I believe is not for windows (in here). How can I know if it applies to me?
I added emacs profiler output. — Doron Shafrir, Jun 26 '15 at 08:12
Using the windows site of AuCTeX. They have version 11.88, but that fix is in version 11.88.5 forward, which seems to be available for Unix-based OS only. — Doron Shafrir, Jun 26 '15 at 10:24
Try and uninstall that package, and then install AUCTeX using the Emacs builtin package manager with M-x package-install RET auctex RET. Please, reply to messages here starting with @username, with username being the user you want to address, otherwise he/she won't be notified. — giordano, Jun 26 '15 at 10:33
@giordano That worked, thanks! Load time is now down to 3 seconds, much more reasonable. Can I give you and Arash Esbati credit for answering?
I previously installed AUCTeX by unpacking the zip file in my emacs 24.4 directory, as instructed here. — Doron Shafrir, Jun 26 '15 at 12:28
@ArashEsbati see above, I think you should write down an answer ;-) — giordano, Jun 26 '15 at 13:09

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

3

This issue is addressed in AUCTeX 11.88.5. (the micro version number .5 refers to ELPA version). Emacs has built-in capabilities to install packages from ELPA. You can find more detailed information about installation from ELPA in this answer. When you install AUCTeX from ELPA, it is crucial not to have the following line in your .emacs:

(load "auctex.el" nil t t)

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

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answered Jun 26 '15 at 19:48

Arash Esbati

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AuCTeX startup is slow

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