Some aspects of Tcl's filesystem (''glob'', ''file'', ''pwd'', ''cd'' primarily) became a bit slower with the vfs layer that was introduced in Tcl 8.4.0. This has gradually been addressed with later Tcl 8.4.x releases and also with Tcl 8.5.x. The current timings are as follows: 000 VERSIONS: 1:8.5a0 2:8.4.5 3:8.3.5 001 FILE dirname absolute tmpfile (obj) 8 10 0 002 FILE dirname absolute tmpfile (str) 11 14 10 003 FILE dirname relative tmpfile (obj) 8 11 0 004 FILE dirname relative tmpfile (str) 12 15 10 005 FILE dirname ~ 6 7 30 006 FILE exec interp 12652 12436 11820 007 FILE exec interp: exit 13463 12323 10920 008 FILE exec interp: pkg require 38329 67561 29940 009 FILE exec interp: pkg require+ 49142 93147 46400 010 FILE exec interp: pkg require+auto_path 53856 78622 43400 011 FILE exists tmpfile (obj) 20 20 20 012 FILE exists ~ 11 12 40 013 FILE exists! absolute tmpfile (obj) 17 18 20 014 FILE exists! absolute tmpfile (str) 23 199 20 015 FILE exists! relative tmpfile (obj) 14 18 20 016 FILE exists! relative tmpfile (str) 17 406 10 017 FILE exists! tmpfile (obj) 20 21 30 018 FILE exists! tmpfile (str) 26 351 20 019 FILE glob tmpdir (30 entries) / -dir 4380 5055 4600 020 FILE glob tmpdir (30 entries) / cd 5146 5458 4710 021 FILE glob tmpdir (subset of 30 entries) 2148 8242 4410 022 FILE glob / all subcommands 76189 60837 102150 023 FILE glob / atime 6771 7358 11210 024 FILE glob / attributes 45904 46978 43270 025 FILE glob / dirname 4398 5456 4800 026 FILE glob / executable 8607 6796 5810 027 FILE glob / exists 6277 6804 5810 028 FILE glob / extension 4338 5140 4610 029 FILE glob / isdirectory 6703 8396 11810 030 FILE glob / isfile 6959 7721 11420 031 FILE glob / mtime 6780 7310 11520 032 FILE glob / owned 6804 7635 11510 033 FILE glob / readable 11928 6794 5610 034 FILE glob / rootname 4411 5337 4710 035 FILE glob / size 7427 7106 11620 036 FILE glob / tail 4388 4973 4600 037 FILE glob / writable 10904 6807 5710 038 FILE glob deep dirs (30 entries+) 40638 53213 43570 039 FILE glob deep dirs (subset of 30 entries+) 22169 54320 42660 040 FILE glob dirs (30 entries) 4430 4582 11210 041 FILE recurse / -dir 94584 102725 128390 042 FILE recurse / cd 101832 163048 127880 043 FILE recurse+stat / -dir 116454 137213 232730 044 FILE recurse+stat / cd 138270 202646 244150 045 FILE tail absolute tmpfile (obj) 4 6 11 046 FILE tail absolute tmpfile (str) 7 11 0 047 FILE tail relative tmpfile (obj) 5 6 0 048 FILE tail relative tmpfile (str) 8 52 10 049 FILE tail ~ 4 7 20 049 BENCHMARKS 1:8.5a0 2:8.4.5 3:8.3.5 (This is for a slightly modified version of file.bench, and a slightly modified version of Tcl 8.5a0 which is undergoing performance testing, where the above timings are on WinXP. Also see end of page for a normalized version). If you have particular pieces of code using ''file'', ''glob'' which are slower in Tcl 8.4/8.5, please add them to this page so that they can be added to the benchmark suite. ''Note:'' reading from and writing to files is a totally separate topic, i.e. '''channel i/o''', which has nothing to do with the vfs changes made to Tcl 8.4.0, and is therefore irrelevant to the particular benchmarking exercise on this page. ''Note 2:'' the 'readable' and 'writable' benchmarks are slower because they actually return the correct values in Windows 2000/XP (Tcl 8.3/8.4 don't correctly check the more complex NTFS Windows user permissions). ---- Same data, normalized: 000 VERSIONS: 1:8.5a0 2:8.4.5 3:8.3.5 001 FILE dirname absolute tmpfile (obj) 8 10 0 002 FILE dirname absolute tmpfile (str) 1.10 1.40 1.00 003 FILE dirname relative tmpfile (obj) 0.80 1.10 1.00 004 FILE dirname relative tmpfile (str) 12 15 0 005 FILE dirname ~ 0.40 0.35 1.00 006 FILE exec interp 0.83 0.90 1.00 007 FILE exec interp: exit 1.10 1.13 1.00 008 FILE exec interp: pkg require 1.38 2.39 1.00 009 FILE exec interp: pkg require+ 1.03 2.00 1.00 010 FILE exec interp: pkg require+auto_path 1.18 2.04 1.00 011 FILE exists tmpfile (obj) 1.00 1.05 1.00 012 FILE exists ~ 0.37 0.40 1.00 013 FILE exists! absolute tmpfile (obj) 0.85 0.90 1.00 014 FILE exists! absolute tmpfile (str) 1.15 9.40 1.00 015 FILE exists! relative tmpfile (obj) 0.67 0.86 1.00 016 FILE exists! relative tmpfile (str) 1.90 35.40 1.00 017 FILE exists! tmpfile (obj) 0.67 0.70 1.00 018 FILE exists! tmpfile (str) 1.30 13.80 1.00 019 FILE glob tmpdir (30 entries) / -dir 0.96 1.02 1.00 020 FILE glob tmpdir (30 entries) / cd 1.15 1.17 1.00 021 FILE glob tmpdir (subset of 30 entries) 0.49 1.06 1.00 022 FILE glob / all subcommands 0.74 0.63 1.00 023 FILE glob / atime 0.64 0.63 1.00 024 FILE glob / attributes 1.27 1.11 1.00 025 FILE glob / dirname 0.92 1.12 1.00 026 FILE glob / executable 2.71 1.20 1.00 027 FILE glob / exists 1.13 1.22 1.00 028 FILE glob / extension 0.94 1.04 1.00 029 FILE glob / isdirectory 0.59 0.63 1.00 030 FILE glob / isfile 0.58 0.63 1.00 031 FILE glob / mtime 0.60 0.63 1.00 032 FILE glob / owned 0.60 0.63 1.00 033 FILE glob / readable 1.89 1.23 1.00 034 FILE glob / rootname 0.92 1.03 1.00 035 FILE glob / size 0.61 0.63 1.00 036 FILE glob / tail 1.00 1.07 1.00 037 FILE glob / writable 1.89 1.21 1.00 038 FILE glob deep dirs (30 entries+) 1.04 1.19 1.00 039 FILE glob deep dirs (subset of 30 entries+) 0.53 1.22 1.00 040 FILE glob dirs (30 entries) 0.39 0.41 1.00 041 FILE recurse / -dir 0.71 0.80 1.00 042 FILE recurse / cd 0.83 1.29 1.00 043 FILE recurse+stat / -dir 0.50 0.60 1.00 044 FILE recurse+stat / cd 0.56 0.89 1.00 045 FILE tail absolute tmpfile (obj) 0.40 0.50 1.00 046 FILE tail absolute tmpfile (str) 7 10 0 047 FILE tail relative tmpfile (obj) 0.50 0.60 1.00 048 FILE tail relative tmpfile (str) 8 10 0 049 FILE tail ~ 0.13 0.17 1.00 049 BENCHMARKS 1:8.5a0 2:8.4.5 3:8.3.5 ---- '''[DGP]''' 2004-01-22: Working with the ''file.bench'' attached to Tcl Patch 871583, I can report that the news is not so good on Unix systems. A large commit yesterday did improve filesystem performance compared to before the patch, but comparing to 8.4 and 8.3 as above, the VFS still hurts: 000 VERSIONS: 1:8.5a0 2:8.5a0 3:8.4.5 4:8.3.5 001 FILE exec interp 1.17 1.13 1.10 1.00 002 FILE exec interp: exit 0.66 0.64 1.03 1.00 003 FILE exec interp: pkg require 1.36 1.33 1.28 1.00 004 FILE exec interp: pkg require+ 1.12 1.61 1.07 1.00 005 FILE exec interp: pkg require+auto_path 1.59 1.15 1.11 1.00 006 FILE exists tmpfile (obj) 1.29 1.14 1.14 1.00 007 FILE exists ~ 0.04 0.04 0.04 1.00 008 FILE exists! absolute tmpfile (obj) 0.78 0.89 0.89 1.00 009 FILE exists! absolute tmpfile (str) 1.50 3.25 4.83 1.00 010 FILE exists! relative tmpfile (obj) 0.83 1.33 1.33 1.00 011 FILE exists! relative tmpfile (str) 1.62 8.38 12.38 1.00 012 FILE exists! tmpfile (obj) 0.75 0.88 0.88 1.00 013 FILE exists! tmpfile (str) 1.70 2.90 4.20 1.00 014 FILE glob tmpdir (30 entries) / -dir 1.05 1.11 1.17 1.00 015 FILE glob tmpdir (30 entries) / cd 1.37 1.53 1.79 1.00 016 FILE glob tmpdir (subset of 30 entries) 0.91 1.01 1.04 1.00 017 FILE glob / all subcommands 1.02 1.04 1.00 1.00 018 FILE glob / atime 2.66 2.50 2.44 1.00 019 FILE glob / attributes 1.14 1.13 1.10 1.00 020 FILE glob / dirname 0.59 2.33 2.24 1.00 021 FILE glob / executable 2.49 2.40 2.32 1.00 022 FILE glob / exists 2.64 2.62 2.47 1.00 023 FILE glob / extension 1.05 1.75 1.65 1.00 024 FILE glob / isdirectory 2.64 2.56 2.46 1.00 025 FILE glob / isfile 2.58 2.47 2.37 1.00 026 FILE glob / mtime 2.56 2.50 2.42 1.00 027 FILE glob / owned 2.53 2.40 2.36 1.00 028 FILE glob / readable 2.66 2.57 2.47 1.00 029 FILE glob / rootname 1.14 1.72 1.63 1.00 030 FILE glob / size 2.58 2.48 2.41 1.00 031 FILE glob / tail 0.68 1.97 1.87 1.00 032 FILE glob / writable 2.68 2.54 2.43 1.00 033 FILE glob deep dirs (30 entries+) 1.17 1.25 1.43 1.00 034 FILE glob deep dirs (subset of 30 entries+) 1.04 1.12 1.23 1.00 035 FILE glob dirs (30 entries) 0.78 0.73 0.76 1.00 036 FILE recurse / -dir 2.16 2.20 2.15 1.00 037 FILE recurse / cd 1.21 2.83 2.99 1.00 038 FILE recurse+stat / -dir 1.38 1.37 1.37 1.00 039 FILE recurse+stat / cd 1.09 1.65 1.74 1.00 040 FILE standard directory 'package require' 1.49 1.35 1.61 1.00 040 BENCHMARKS 1:8.5a0 2:8.5a0 3:8.4.5 4:8.3.5 000 VERSIONS: 1:8.5a0 2:8.5a0 3:8.4.5 4:8.3.5 001 FILE dirname absolute tmpfile (obj) 2.71 2.71 2.71 1.00 002 FILE dirname absolute tmpfile (str) 3.00 3.12 3.25 1.00 003 FILE dirname relative tmpfile (obj) 2.60 2.60 2.40 1.00 004 FILE dirname relative tmpfile (str) 2.83 3.17 3.17 1.00 005 FILE dirname ~ 0.11 0.11 0.10 1.00 006 FILE exec interp 1.15 1.14 1.09 1.00 007 FILE exec interp: exit 1.15 1.14 1.10 1.00 008 FILE exec interp: pkg require 1.40 1.39 1.36 1.00 009 FILE exec interp: pkg require+ 1.00 0.98 1.44 1.00 010 FILE exec interp: pkg require+auto_path 1.15 1.52 1.11 1.00 011 FILE exists tmpfile (obj) 1.14 1.14 1.29 1.00 012 FILE exists ~ 0.04 0.05 0.05 1.00 013 FILE exists! absolute tmpfile (obj) 0.54 0.62 0.62 1.00 014 FILE exists! absolute tmpfile (str) 1.50 3.17 4.83 1.00 015 FILE exists! relative tmpfile (obj) 0.83 1.33 1.33 1.00 016 FILE exists! relative tmpfile (str) 1.62 7.62 12.00 1.00 017 FILE exists! tmpfile (obj) 0.75 0.88 0.88 1.00 018 FILE exists! tmpfile (str) 1.70 3.00 4.20 1.00 019 FILE glob tmpdir (30 entries) / -dir 1.04 1.13 1.19 1.00 020 FILE glob tmpdir (30 entries) / cd 1.16 1.44 1.57 1.00 021 FILE glob tmpdir (subset of 30 entries) 0.97 1.00 1.03 1.00 022 FILE glob / all subcommands 1.00 1.02 1.00 1.00 023 FILE glob / atime 2.66 2.50 2.49 1.00 024 FILE glob / attributes 1.12 1.11 1.11 1.00 025 FILE glob / dirname 0.55 2.14 2.08 1.00 026 FILE glob / executable 2.60 2.50 2.46 1.00 027 FILE glob / exists 2.63 2.53 2.48 1.00 028 FILE glob / extension 0.99 1.63 1.59 1.00 029 FILE glob / isdirectory 2.58 2.54 2.49 1.00 030 FILE glob / isfile 2.57 2.46 2.45 1.00 031 FILE glob / mtime 2.59 2.47 2.43 1.00 032 FILE glob / owned 2.47 2.38 2.36 1.00 033 FILE glob / readable 2.61 2.53 2.45 1.00 034 FILE glob / rootname 1.18 1.71 1.64 1.00 035 FILE glob / size 2.59 2.50 2.49 1.00 036 FILE glob / tail 0.65 2.04 1.79 1.00 037 FILE glob / writable 2.66 2.54 2.49 1.00 038 FILE glob deep dirs (30 entries+) 1.12 1.20 1.34 1.00 039 FILE glob deep dirs (subset of 30 entries+) 0.98 1.08 1.18 1.00 040 FILE glob dirs (30 entries) 0.75 0.77 0.82 1.00 041 FILE recurse / -dir 2.12 2.17 2.16 1.00 042 FILE recurse / cd 1.17 2.79 2.99 1.00 043 FILE recurse+stat / -dir 1.34 1.35 1.37 1.00 044 FILE recurse+stat / cd 1.05 1.65 1.74 1.00 045 FILE standard directory 'package require' 1.42 1.33 1.60 1.00 046 FILE tail absolute tmpfile (obj) 2.00 2.20 2.00 1.00 047 FILE tail absolute tmpfile (str) 2.14 2.57 2.57 1.00 048 FILE tail relative tmpfile (obj) 2.25 2.25 2.25 1.00 049 FILE tail relative tmpfile (str) 2.80 3.20 3.40 1.00 050 FILE tail ~ 0.07 0.08 0.09 1.00 050 BENCHMARKS 1:8.5a0 2:8.5a0 3:8.4.5 4:8.3.5 Note that benchmarks 025 and 036 do show a speed improvement even over Tcl 8.3.5. Note also in the comment history of Tcl Patch 871583 that those are the only benchmarks that were specifically analyzed for improvements on Unix. I suspect there may be further improvements to achieve here. Just need someone on Unix to apply the effort the way Vince has done for Windows. Vince: I've attached the file.bench with a few extra tests to the patch. I agree it would be great to do more work on Unix -- there are still too many things that are twice as slow. The interesting thing I noticed on Windows is that almost all the time is spent (60% in most benchmarks) in native normalization (checking whether directories exist and then finding their unique case-sensitive name and checking if they are a link). Certainly one would hope that Unix systems with 'realpath' should be much faster (assuming the realpath implementation is any good).