TeX 1995 July/TeX CD-ROM July 1995 (Disc 1)(Walnut Creek)(1995).ISO/tex-k/tex-k-archive.past/tex-k-archive.gz/tex-k-archive/[e-mail]_Fri Aug 12 11:21:18 1994.msg

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Subject: Re: TeX and DEC Stations
To: Rik Faith <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 1994 15:35:36 (BST)
From: Timothy Murphy <[e-mail]>
Cc: [e-mail]
In-Reply-To: <[e-mail]> from "Rik Faith" at Aug 12, 94 09:46:39 am
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>
> I've compiled the distribution (lib-6.1 and src-6.0) for these machines
> using gcc 2.5.8 and the -O option.  TeX is incredibly slow (about 3 to 5
> times slower than our old TeX 2.98 installation).  This leads to a lot of
> complaints about performance.  Many users refuse to use the new TeX
> installation.  (Using the latest kpathsea package does not help much.)
> LaTeX 2e is even slower than plain TeX or LaTeX 2.09.
>

Have you tried using the ls-R database with kpathsea?
Go to your main TeX directory (say /usr/local/lib/texmf) and say

% ls -LR /usr/local/lib/texmf > ls-R

In my experience, a sudden change in speed is more likely due
to a change in the number of files being "stat"ed
than any change in the compiler.

Also, I'm not clear what you mean by src-6.0.
At least with the latest UnixTeX distribution from ftp.cs.umb.edu
you would just have a web2c-6.1 directory.

I must admit I use the latest kpathsea that comes with dvipsk.
I'm not sure if that makes any difference.
You have to apply a patch if you do this
which you can find at ftp.cs.umb.edu .
I think it is called web2c.help.kpathsea .