git "startup" slow

[kkmuffme]

Existing issues matching what you're seeing

• I was not able to find an open or closed issue matching what I'm seeing

Git for Windows version

>time git --version

always takes at least 100ms
(and therefore all git commands have this overhead cost)

Specifying the absolute path (both in Windows as well as in cygwin form) makes no difference.


Compared to e.g.
>time echo "hello" | tail -1

(or any other commands in git bash)
which take <30ms (which is still abysmally slow compared to unix, where it's 3ms)

Even with all trace flags enabled

time GIT_TRACE=1 GIT_TRACE_PERFORMANCE=1 GIT_TRACE_SETUP=1 GIT_TRACE_PACK_ACCESS=1 GIT_TRACE_PACKET=1 GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE=1 GIT_CURL_VERBOSE=1 git config --get user.name
08:24:33.668820 exec-cmd.c:266          trace: resolved executable dir: C:/Progr
am Files/Git/mingw64/bin
08:24:33.674816 trace.c:316             setup: git_dir: .git
08:24:33.674816 trace.c:317             setup: git_common_dir: .git
08:24:33.674816 trace.c:318             setup: worktree: C:/Dev/bitbucket
08:24:33.674816 trace.c:319             setup: cwd: C:/Dev/bitbucket
08:24:33.675818 trace.c:320             setup: prefix: (null)
08:24:33.675818 git.c:476               trace: built-in: git config --get user.n
ame
Foo
08:24:33.676818 trace.c:416             performance: 0.002770800 s: git command:
 'C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\bin\git.exe' config --get user.name

real    0m0.117s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m0.016s


we see that the git command itself is super fast, like on unix.
But there is something before (or after?) that causes it to be significantly slower than all other programs in git bash.

When checking ldd it shows only cygwin.
Is this an issue there? Or any suggestions on how to debug this further?

Windows version

Windows 11

Windows CPU architecture

x86_64 (64-bit)

Additional Windows version information

Options set during installation

Editor Option: VIM
Custom Editor Path:
Default Branch Option:
Path Option: Cmd
SSH Option: ExternalOpenSSH
Tortoise Option: false
CURL Option: OpenSSL
CRLF Option: CRLFCommitAsIs
Bash Terminal Option: MinTTY
Git Pull Behavior Option: FFOnly
Use Credential Manager: Enabled
Performance Tweaks FSCache: Enabled
Enable Symlinks: Disabled
Enable FSMonitor: Disabled

Other interesting things

No response

Terminal/shell

git bash

Commands that trigger the issue

all

Expected behaviour

faster startup

Actual behaviour

slow

Repository

No response

[dscho]

Please consider investigating using the GIT_TRACE2_PERF facility instead.

If that is not enough, I recommend building Git and then adding trace2 regions, like so: db52812

[rimrul]

Is specifically startup of git slow or are other native processes like curl (or anything in /mingw64/bin, really) also affected?

[kkmuffme]

Is specifically startup of git slow or are other native processes like curl (or anything in /mingw64/bin, really) also affected?

Thanks for pointing me there - everything else I checked (curl, brotli, xz) is even slower than git (like 250-600ms)

Please consider investigating using the GIT_TRACE2_PERF facility instead.

When running git version in ~ (not a git repo):

11:07:23.346264 common-init.c:57             | d0 | main                     | version      |     |           |           |              | 2.51.0.windows.1
11:07:23.346264 common-init.c:58             | d0 | main                     | start        |     |  0.009025 |           |              | 'C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\bin\git.exe' version
11:07:23.366261 ..._win32_process_info.c:122 | d0 | main                     | data_json    | r0  |  0.029467 |  0.029467 | process      | windows/ancestry:["bash.exe","bash.exe"]
11:07:23.366261 git.c:477                    | d0 | main                     | cmd_name     |     |           |           |              | version (version)
11:07:23.367265 ..._win32_process_info.c:170 | d0 | main                     | data_json    | r0  |  0.030156 |  0.030156 | process      | windows/memory:{"PageFaultCount":6415,"PeakWorkingSetSize":9383936,"PeakPagefileUsage":36646912}
11:07:23.367265 git.c:750                    | d0 | main                     | exit         |     |  0.030198 |           |              | code:0
11:07:23.367265 trace2/tr2_tgt_perf.c:219    | d0 | main                     | atexit       |     |  0.030216 |           |              | code:0
11:07:23.520274 common-init.c:57             | d0 | main                     | version      |     |           |           |              | 2.51.0.windows.1
11:07:23.521275 common-init.c:58             | d0 | main                     | start        |     |  0.008909 |           |              | 'C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\bin\git.exe' rev-parse --git-dir --is-inside-git-dir --is-bare-repository --is-inside-work-tree --show-ref-format --short HEAD
11:07:23.545273 ..._win32_process_info.c:122 | d0 | main                     | data_json    | r0  |  0.033271 |  0.033271 | process      | windows/ancestry:["bash.exe","bash.exe","bash.exe","bash.exe"]
11:07:23.545273 git.c:477                    | d0 | main                     | cmd_name     |     |           |           |              | rev-parse (rev-parse)
11:07:23.546276 usage.c:72                   | d0 | main                     | error        |     |           |           |              | not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git
11:07:23.546276 ..._win32_process_info.c:170 | d0 | main                     | data_json    | r0  |  0.034199 |  0.034199 | process      | windows/memory:{"PageFaultCount":8464,"PeakWorkingSetSize":9383936,"PeakPagefileUsage":36634624}
11:07:23.546276 usage.c:86                   | d0 | main                     | exit         |     |  0.034223 |           |              | code:128
11:07:23.546276 trace2/tr2_tgt_perf.c:219    | d0 | main                     | atexit       |     |  0.034232 |           |              | code:128

when running it in a git repo

11:08:04.862412 common-init.c:57             | d0 | main                     | version      |     |           |           |              | 2.51.0.windows.1
11:08:04.862412 common-init.c:58             | d0 | main                     | start        |     |  0.008241 |           |              | 'C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\bin\git.exe' rev-parse --git-dir --is-inside-git-dir --is-bare-repository --is-inside-work-tree --show-ref-format --short HEAD
11:08:04.885412 ..._win32_process_info.c:122 | d0 | main                     | data_json    | r0  |  0.030792 |  0.030792 | process      | windows/ancestry:["bash.exe","bash.exe","bash.exe","bash.exe"]
11:08:04.885412 git.c:477                    | d0 | main                     | cmd_name     |     |           |           |              | rev-parse (rev-parse)
11:08:04.886412 repository.c:242             | d0 | main                     | def_repo     | r1  |           |           |              | worktree:C:/reda/cted
11:08:04.888412 midx.c:211                   | d0 | main                     | data         | r1  |  0.033731 |  0.033731 | midx         | load/num_packs:5
11:08:04.888412 midx.c:212                   | d0 | main                     | data         | r1  |  0.033754 |  0.033754 | midx         | load/num_objects:1433491
11:08:04.889411 ..._win32_process_info.c:170 | d0 | main                     | data_json    | r1  |  0.035031 |  0.035031 | process      | windows/memory:{"PageFaultCount":9050,"PeakWorkingSetSize":10428416,"PeakPagefileUsage":36634624}
11:08:04.889411 git.c:750                    | d0 | main                     | exit         |     |  0.035103 |           |              | code:0
11:08:04.889411 trace2/tr2_tgt_perf.c:219    | d0 | main                     | atexit       |     |  0.035115 |           |              | code:0
11:08:04.971821 common-init.c:57             | d0 | main                     | version      |     |           |           |              | 2.51.0.windows.1
11:08:04.971821 common-init.c:58             | d0 | main                     | start        |     |  0.007974 |           |              | 'C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\bin\git.exe' config --bool core.sparseCheckout
11:08:04.992820 ..._win32_process_info.c:122 | d0 | main                     | data_json    | r0  |  0.028836 |  0.028836 | process      | windows/ancestry:["bash.exe","bash.exe","bash.exe"]
11:08:04.993821 repository.c:242             | d0 | main                     | def_repo     | r1  |           |           |              | worktree:C:/reda/cted
11:08:04.993821 git.c:477                    | d0 | main                     | cmd_name     |     |           |           |              | config (config)
11:08:04.993821 ..._win32_process_info.c:170 | d0 | main                     | data_json    | r1  |  0.030611 |  0.030611 | process      | windows/memory:{"PageFaultCount":7488,"PeakWorkingSetSize":9379840,"PeakPagefileUsage":36651008}
11:08:04.993821 git.c:750                    | d0 | main                     | exit         |     |  0.030630 |           |              | code:1
11:08:04.993821 trace2/tr2_tgt_perf.c:219    | d0 | main                     | atexit       |     |  0.030638 |           |              | code:1

It seems the issue is that for some reason instead of just running what I asked it to - which would be fast just like on linux - it for some reason decides to run additional stuff on every invocation? Or am I misinterpreting this?

[dscho]

Interesting. So midx is called... that's funny! But then, from your numbers it looks like there's not really any time difference between outside and inside of repo?

[kkmuffme]

No, it's always slow. It seems to have everything it needs already early on, but then runs other things that slow it down massively.