Slow session startup (now w/ Runtime startup diagnostics)

[codeswitching]

I'm taking @juliasilge 's advice and opening a new discussion for my persistent slow startup issue.

R 4.5.1 loads by default and usually takes several minutes. Once the first R session finally loads, additional R sessions start quickly (~6 seconds). I notice that Positron always seems to spend a long time discovering Python interpreters, even after an R session starts.

Windows Defender exceptions

In case this has anything to do with Windows Defender, here are the permissions. No additional permissions are allowed by my IT policy.

Runtime Startup Diagnostics

Runtime Startup Diagnostics.txt

[jmcphers]

Thanks for the diagnostics report! The part that really stands out is that it's taking almost a full minute to activate the Python subsystem:

Name	Timestamp	Delta	Total
code/positron/runtimeStartup/extensionActivated/positron.positron-r	1772732259032	2	30412
code/positron/positron.positron-supervisor/started	1772732259032	0	30412
code/positron/positron.positron-supervisor/ready	1772732262985	3953	34365
code/positron/runtimeStartup/extensionActivated/ms-python.python	1772732319958	56973	91338

I'm not sure why this would be (perhaps it's hitting network connections or drives). Would you be willing to try disabling it and restarting Positron to see if it is indeed the issue? You can do this by typing @builtin python to the Extensions pane as follows and then selecting the "Disable" option from the gear:

If that does improve things, we can dig more into why it's so slow to start up.

If that doesn't improve things, could you share the results of the Developer: Startup Performance command? (it looks like a lot of time is being spent activating extensions here so it may be other extension(s) delaying activation of the ones needed)

[codeswitching]

That definitely helps, cutting the time to first runtime in half (~1 minute):

Runtime Startup Diagnostics.txt

If I re-enable the Python extensions, here is the Runtime Diagnostic and the Startup Performance:

Runtime Startup Diagnostics - with Python enabled.txt

Startup Performance.txt

Btw, every so often, Positron is unable to discover any Python interpreters at all. Reloading Positron usually resolves this.

[jmcphers]

Thanks, that's very helpful!

With Python enabled, can you grab the entire contents of the "Python Language Pack" logs for us? (for brevity, the diagnostics report only shows the last 50 lines). I'd love to know why it is taking an ENTIRE MINUTE to start up. That's way too long.

We've also reproduced the "failed to discover any Python interpreters" issue sporadically in our tests and are investigating. If you hit this in the future, can you see whether you are able to open the New Folder from Template dialog? (seems unrelated but isn't!)

[codeswitching]

I set the logging level to 'debug' - definitely some relevant-seeming errors in here:

Python Language Pack.log

[jmcphers]

I've opened a couple of issues on our side to track:

Shouldn't need to wait for Python to start R - #12349
Python takes 1 minute to start - #12349

[ldecicco-USGS]

This feels exactly like:
rstudio/rstudio#15609

It takes me well over a minute to get Positron started. If I switch folders after it's open that cuts the time about in half. Restarting Positron takes goes back to >1 minute:

Initial open:
Runtime_diagnostics.txt

Changing folder:
runtime_changing_folders.txt

Restart Positron:
Runtime_restart.txt

[juliasilge]

Thanks for sharing these logs!

It looks like in your case, positron-reticulate activation is the main bottleneck, taking ~57 sec. We made a fix that addresses this in #12338, which is currently available in the daily builds and will be released about Monday.

The secondary bottleneck in your case is the third party Julia extension ntluong95.positron-julia, which is taking about ~28 sec to activate. If you don't need that extension all the time, you might consider deactivating it. I believe the work we have logged in #12591 would alleviate this, either way, although there would be tradeoffs from us implementing that.