NVM starting too slow -- can I just add the bin folder to PATH?

[octref]

Hey. I use a minimal zsh config to make sure my shell starts fast.
However after adding

. ~/.nvm/nvm.sh

The shell starts much slower.

So I changed it to

PATH=~/.nvm/versions/io.js/v2.3.3/bin:$PATH

I know I can't utilize nvm full this way, but I'm OK with just using one version. When I want to use another version I'll load ~/.nvm/nvm.sh to use nvm and then change the node bin PATH.
But will this setting break anything? Any ENV var I should set up manually?

[creationix]

As far as I know, that will work fine. You seem to understand that the nvm command won't be usable without first sourcing it.

[octref]

TY 🍻

[creationix]

FWIW, I do have a few machines where I rarely use node. I have nvm installed, but don't load it automatically. The few times I need node, I just first do . ~/nvm/nvm.sh before using nvm or node for that session.

[ljharb]

@octref By chance are you using oh-my-zsh? I've noticed that the majority of performance complaints are omz users, and past investigation makes me strongly suspect some of the options it sets causing slowness.

[octref]

@ljharb
I once tried to eliminate oh-my-zsh's slowness but failed. It's too bloated.

So I just grokked through the zsh doc and enabled the features I need.

# -------------------------------- #
# Zsh
# -------------------------------- #

fpath=(/usr/local/share/zsh-completions /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions $fpath)

autoload -Uz compinit colors add-zsh-hook
colors
compinit

# Colored auto completion
zstyle ':completion:*' list-colors "di=34"
# Case insensitive completion
zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'

# Stop zsh eating space before my pipe chars
export ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS=''

# Allow extended glob like ^file, *~file (everything except file)
setopt extended_glob

# -------------------------------- #
# Setup prompt
# -------------------------------- #

set_prompt() {
  local ICON=''
  # Check if in a git folder
  if [ -d '.git' ] || [[ $(command git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree 2>/dev/null) == "true" ]]; then
    # Check for uncommited changes, ignore untracked files
    if [[ -n $(command git status --porcelain --untracked-files=no | tail -1) ]]; then
      ICON="%{$fg[red]%}>"
    else
      ICON="%{$fg[green]%}>"
    fi
  else
    ICON='>'
  fi
  PROMPT=" %{$fg[blue]%}%1~ $ICON%{$reset_color%} "
}

add-zsh-hook precmd set_prompt

I feel the amount of delay omz causes is much more than the delay nvm causes.
I think you can direct those omz users to https://github.com/sindresorhus/pure . Simple and fast zsh configuration.

[ljharb]

Thanks for the tip. I'd still like to know which zsh option is causing the problem, since sourcing nvm.sh is lightning fast in stock zsh as well as every other shell I've tested. If the code you posted is all you're including beyond stock zsh then thanks, that's awesome, and I'll take a deeper look once I'm back in my country in a week and a half :-)

[benirose]

I have the issue and I'm using bash.

[ljharb]

@benirose what's nvm debug output?

[jamesvl]

I'm experiencing the nvm slowdown in bash as well.

Background: I don't really notice the slowness for a single login SSH session, but tools like vagrant rsync will do about 12 SSH sessions in quick succession, and when each takes ~1s vs. being nearly instant, it slows down file syncing by an order of magnitude.

My nvm debug output:

nvm --version: v0.31.0
$SHELL: /bin/bash
$HOME: /home/vagrant
$NVM_DIR: '$HOME/.nvm'
$PREFIX: ''
$NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX: ''
nvm current: v5.10.1
which node: $NVM_DIR/versions/node/v5.10.1/bin/node
which iojs:
which npm: $NVM_DIR/versions/node/v5.10.1/bin/npm
npm config get prefix: $NVM_DIR/versions/node/v5.10.1
npm root -g: $NVM_DIR/versions/node/v5.10.1/lib/node_modules

This is on Ubuntu 16.04 (beta 2) server.

Bash user here, its slow enough to be annoying when starting a new window in tmux:

time /usr/local/opt/nvm/nvm.sh

real    0m0.617s
user    0m0.442s
sys 0m0.204s

[benirose]

@ljharb sorry I never saw the question you asked. Here's my output for nvm debug.

$ nvm debug
nvm --version: v0.30.1
$SHELL: /bin/bash
$HOME: /Users/benrose
$NVM_DIR: '$HOME/.nvm'
$PREFIX: ''
$NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX: ''
nvm current: v6.3.1
which node: $NVM_DIR/versions/node/v6.3.1/bin/node
which iojs: 
which npm: $NVM_DIR/versions/node/v6.3.1/bin/npm
npm config get prefix: $NVM_DIR/versions/node/v6.3.1
npm root -g: $NVM_DIR/versions/node/v6.3.1/lib/node_modules
-bash: [: : integer expression expected

I installed using Homebrew and have this in my .bash_profile

export NVM_DIR=~/.nvm
. $(brew --prefix nvm)/nvm.sh

I have fairly large dotfiles, but when I do time source ~/.bash_profile with the line I get:

real    0m1.663s
user    0m0.972s
sys 0m0.596s

Versus without calling nvm.sh

real    0m0.359s
user    0m0.228s
sys 0m0.133s

I do have a default alias set, which I heard slows things down, but I'm not sure how else to configure it:

$ nvm list
       v0.10.41
         v4.4.6
         v4.4.7
->       v6.3.1
default -> 6 (-> v6.3.1)
node -> stable (-> v6.3.1) (default)
stable -> 6.3 (-> v6.3.1) (default)
iojs -> N/A (default)

I hope this helps!