Re: Emacs very slow, how to investigate

[Julien Cubizolles]

Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> writes:

> Julien Cubizolles <j.cubizolles@free.fr> writes:
>
>> After running for a few hours, Emacs becomes sluggish, to the point that
>> it takes several seconds to move the focus from one window to the other,
>> with switch-window (keyboard or mouse). I'm running GNU Emacs 24.4.50.1
>> (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.10.8), my typical workflow includes
>> latex-mode org-mode gnus helm.
>>
>> Has anyone seen something similar ? How can I investigate ?
>
> Haven't seen it, but I'd start by examining how much memory and CPU
> Emacs is using.
>
> The command line tool "top" is good enough.
> Take memory readings just after start up then
> when things slow down.  Look for memory use creeping up.

I finally could track it down. Whenever emacs was crawling the process
hud-service was also at 100% cpu. This manages the Heads-Up-Display
feature of Ubuntu Unity. I ditched Ubuntu Unity for gnome-shell and now
Emacs doesn't freezes anymore !

Julien.