Slow build time in Windows environment

[wrenoud]

This is pertinent to Issue #538 but that has been closed to open comment. I wanted to share a partial fix that seems obvious but only just struck me.

I have Microsoft Security Essentials running Real-time protection. This includes process monitoring. I added node.exe to the Excluded processes and have seen a drastic improvement in the build times.

Before:

Build successful - 13126ms.

Slowest Trees                  | Total
-------------------------------+----------------
TreeMerger (vendor)            | 3154ms
TreeMerger (stylesAndVendor)   | 2051ms
TreeMerger (appAndDependencies) | 1914ms
StaticCompiler                 | 1791ms

After:

Build successful - 4479ms.

Slowest Trees                  | Total
-------------------------------+----------------
TreeMerger (appAndDependencies) | 881ms
TreeMerger (stylesAndVendor)   | 639ms
StaticCompiler                 | 582ms
TreeMerger (vendor)            | 564ms
ES3SafeFilter                  | 282ms
JSHint - Tests                 | 251ms

Still not optimal, but definitely not an ember-cli problem. Might be worth noting in the documentation to disable process monitoring if people are seeing slow build times in Windows environments.

[stefanpenner]

@wrenoud thanks for the info. Although not ideal, do you see a different approach ?

@rjackson i wonder if is the missing peace for windows perf in your latest batch of improvements.

[ccoenen]

As an additional tip i'd suggest excluding (at least) /tmp from windows search index locations.

[ccoenen]

As another data point: My speed-up disabling Windows Defender (Win8) with ember-cli 0.0.39:

With Windows Defender:

Build successful - 9001ms.
... Reload LiveReload files ...

Slowest Trees                  | Total
-------------------------------+----------------
TreeMerger (appAndDependencies) | 1432ms
StaticCompiler                 | 1427ms
TreeMerger (stylesAndVendor)   | 1384ms
TreeMerger (vendor)            | 1346ms
ES3SafeFilter                  | 508ms

Without Defender:

Build successful - 3919ms.
... Reload LiveReload files ...

Slowest Trees                  | Total
-------------------------------+----------------
TreeMerger (appAndDependencies) | 836ms
StaticCompiler                 | 753ms
TreeMerger (vendor)            | 619ms
TreeMerger (stylesAndVendor)   | 606ms

Here's how to disable it on windows 8 just for node:

• Hit your Windows Key, then start typing "defen" which should bring up "Defender as first result". Start it.
• In Windows Defender, Choose the Settings Tab, Then the "excluded processes" Line. (screenshot calls it "Ausgeschlossene Prozesse")
• Click "Browse" (first button on the right, screenshot says "Durchsuchen")
• Navigate to your node installation, which is usually in C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe
• Click OK
• Click "Add" (Second button, screenshot says "Hinzufügen")
• Clich "Save changes" (Left button at the bottom, screenshot says "Änderungen speichern")

Here's how to disable it for just one directory:

• Hit your Windows Key, then start typing "defen" which should bring up "Defender as first result". Start it.
• In Windows Defender, Choose the Settings Tab, Then the "excluded files and directories" Line. (screenshot says "Ausgeschlossene Dateien und Sp...")
• Click "Browse" (first button on the right, screenshot says "Durchsuchen")
• Navigate to your project's tmp dir. While you can exclude more, i personally go with /tmp, only. Choose wisely ;-)
• Click OK
• Click "Add" (Second button, screenshot says "Hinzufügen")
• Clich "Save changes" (Left button at the bottom, screenshot says "Änderungen speichern")

[ccoenen]

How to disable Windows Search Indexing

(On Win 8; Win 7 might be different)

• Hit Win+X, Then choose control Panel
• Look for (or type it into the search field) "Indexing Options" (Screenshot says "Indizierungsoptionen")
• Select the location that will most likely contain your project. Mine is below "User" (Screenshot: "Benutzer")
• Click "Change" or "Edit" (Screenshot: "Ändern")
• This brings up a directory tree with checkboxes. Navigate to your project dir and remove the checkbox for /tmp or anywhere else you'd like.
• Click OK

[stefanpenner]

@ccoenen this info is quite valuable, can you submit it as a PR to the website?

[wrenoud]

Thanks @ccoenen! You hit all the points. I too saw an improvement removing the tmp folder from seach indexing.

I also realized after posting that adding tmp to the exclusions also worked, which seems a little safer that excluding node.exe, which effectively white-lists any .js files.

[wrenoud]

I can get some windows 7 screenshots later today for documentation if that's of help.

[gzurbach]

Thanks for the suggestion. I saved 8 seconds (out of 17) by adding node.exe and ./tmp to the excluded scanned processes/paths. My laptop has System Center Enpoint Protection, similar to Windows Defender.

[ccoenen]

@wrenoud, if you have an english version of windows, that would be great! Feel free to add them to #1302.

[stefanpenner]

this has been added to the website, further perf work will likely be in broccoli land