M-x compile getting very slow after a while

[Nicolas Bock]

Hi,

I usually compile the programs I write in emacs with the M-x compile command.
I noticed that when I also run gdb in another buffer that after some time the
time it takes emacs to offer me the compile command after I type M-x compile
is getting longer and longer. This gets so bad that I have to wait minutes to
get the compile command. I can interrupt emacs with C-g but that also kills my
request to get this compile command. Emacs is pretty much just stuck while I
have to wait, but the cpu usage goes up to 100% during that time, so I guess
that it is doing something. I am using emacs 20.7.1 on an intel (redhat 7.0).
Interestingly enough, this doesn't seem to occur when I run emacs 20.4.1 on a
Sun Sparc under Solaris 8. Is this some known behavior? Is there a work around
or some fix?

        Any help would be greatly appreciated,

                        nick