Compilation script, improve avr-gcc-ar call efficiency

[MorenoMG]

Hi to all

This is my first post and first approach to Arduino world.
Today I installed Arduino IDE 1.6.11 on a Windows 10 laptop.

All work fine but the system take long time to compile.
I removed antivirus, placed compilation folder in a RAMDisk but nothing change, a simple program like BlinkWithoutDelay is compiled in about 25 seconds, a life.

I enabled verbose mode and looked inside compilation process.
The biggest time leakage is the continuous calling to avr-gcc-ar, for BlinkWithoutDelay avr-gcc-ar is called 26 times for a total of about 15 seconds.

I created an enormous single call command line with about 100 o files
This call take less than one second, more than 100 times faster.

Is possible modify the script generation module to create a single call to avr-gcc-ar instead of a call for each file??

Bye, Moreno
Uploading Call.Txt…

[facchinm]

Hi @MorenoMG ,
the fact that compiling a Blink takes 25 seconds is really strange. Apart from antivirus-related problems, it would be interesting to see your PC specifications to understand what is going on. Is there any other process eating cpu time?

[MorenoMG]

Hi

The laptop is a hight end equipment, with i7-6700HQ processor and 8GB of DDR4 RAM.
I read a lot of stories about compilation time but nothing solve my problems.

I will try to install Arduino IDE on other equipments to see if something change.

Bye, Moreno

[MorenoMG]

Hi

Ach, there is something wrong in my laptop.
I installed Arduino IDE on a Windows XP virtual machine (on the same laptop) and it compile complex programs in about 4 seconds.

Now I understand why nobody improve the compilation efficiency 8<))))

Now the problem is understand where is the source of the delay.

Bye, Moreno

[MorenoMG]

Hi

I do some check on different machines.
All have the same antivirus (Avira) and the same firewall (Comodo) with different windows version.

All the machines with 32bit Windows version are very quick, all the machine with a 64bit Windows version are very slow.

Is normal which 32bit programs take a bit more time before start then 64bit programs.
This time multiplied for all the program execution call in the script take long time.

I think there are not solution for the problem, to minimize it is necessary reduce the number of program execution call.

Bye, Moreno

[facchinm]

Oh well, I normally use the IDE on a 64bit win 10 (with MS security essentials) and the speed is comparable with my main Linux machine (if not faster). There is surely something else we are not taking into account... My first suspect is still the antivirus, maybe on Win10 it is enforced in some ways by the OS and checks the files even if "disabled".

[MorenoMG]

Hi

I tried to isolate the problem.

1. Created a dummy folder zzzz

2. Copied avr compiler from C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\tools\ to \zzzz

3. Created a batch file with one hundred avr-gcc-ar commands like \zzzz\avr\bin\avr-gcc-ar
   is an empty command which only return : no operation specified

4. Executed this batch on different windows machines

---

Running the batch the problem appear immediately.

Laptop Windows 10 64bit i7 Avira Comodo --> 46"
Laptop Windows XP very old Avira Comodo --> 3"
Windows XP Virtual Machine --> 9"
Tablet Windows 10 32bit Atom Microsoft AV FW --> 10"
Desktop Windows 10 32bit AMD Avira Comodo --> 14"

---

I downloaded from here http://blog.zakkemble.co.uk/avr-gcc-6-1-0/ 64bit version of avr gcc but nothing change.

---

Different commands give different execution time but the advantage of virtual machine remains.
avr-gcc-ar
Laptop Windows 10 64bit i7 Avira Comodo --> 46"
Windows XP Virtual Machine --> 9"

avr-ld
Laptop Windows 10 64bit i7 Avira Comodo --> 24"
Windows XP Virtual Machine --> 5"

---

I added an echo off and redirect output to a file
echo off
\zzzz\avr\bin\avr-gcc-ar 2> aaa.txt

nothing change on Windows 10 but XP double the speed

Laptop Windows 10 64bit i7 Avira Comodo --> 46"
Windows XP Virtual Machine --> 4"

Any other idea?

Bye, Moreno