Slow to start

[lapo-luchini]

Seems that loading the openssl backend takes a lot of time (2 to 6 seconds on my system), I'm not expert of Python but maybe it could be loaded lazily?

$ python -v /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/httpie/cli.py 2>&1 | gawk '{ print strftime("[%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S]"), $0 }'
[2017-08-24 13:16:50] import cryptography.hazmat.backends.openssl.backend # precompiled from /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cryptography/hazmat/back
[2017-08-24 13:16:50] # /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cryptography/hazmat/backends/openssl/ciphers.pyc matches /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packag
[2017-08-24 13:16:50] import cryptography.hazmat.backends.openssl.ciphers # precompiled from /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cryptography/hazmat/back
[2017-08-24 13:16:56] import cryptography.hazmat.primitives.ciphers # directory /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cryptography/hazmat/primitives/cipher
[2017-08-24 13:16:56] # /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cryptography/hazmat/primitives/ciphers/__init__.pyc matches /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-pac
[2017-08-24 13:16:56] import cryptography.hazmat.primitives.ciphers # precompiled from /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cryptography/hazmat/primitives

[sigmavirus24]

It's not loaded by httpie directly at all. There has been work to improve this timing in all associated projects. Can you share the versions of the projects involved that you're using?

[lapo-luchini]

Oh, sorry, I didn't notice the incriminated library was included form elsewhere.
This seems to be the full path from that library to httpie package:

% pkg which /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cryptography/hazmat/backends/openssl/ciphers.py
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cryptography/hazmat/backends/openssl/ciphers.py was installed by package py27-cryptography-1.7.2
% pkg info -r py27-cryptography-1.7.2
py27-cryptography-1.7.2:
        py27-openssl-16.2.0
        py27-urllib3-1.22
% pkg info -r py27-urllib3-1.22      
py27-urllib3-1.22:
        py27-requests-2.18.1_1
% pkg info -r py27-requests-2.18.1_1
py27-requests-2.18.1_1:
        py27-httpie-0.9.8

PS: I'm using FreeBSD 11.1/amd64, everything is installed (and updated) using official binary packages.

[jkbrzt]

@lapo-luchini this is, sadly, a known issue. The best solution is to install HTTPie against Python 3.

[lapo-luchini]

PS: now the (same) FreeBSD Port creates both the py27-httpie-0.9.8 and py36-httpie-0.9.8 binary packages.