PdfLatex and LuaLatex are slow

[Mario Forzanini]

Hello everyone,

I recently started to use TeX on Guix but I noticed that compiling documents is 
really slow, as most of the time is spent loading packages.

E.g. compiling a 22 page beamer presentation takes 2 minutes:

<snip>
$ wc -l presentation.tex
213 /home/mario/doc/uni/Tesi/thesis/presentation.tex
$ time lualatex presentation.tex
[...]
Output written on presentation.pdf (22 pages, 5682550 bytes).
Transcript written on presentation.log.
35.486u 126.397s 162.888r 	 lualatex 
/home/mario/doc/uni/Tesi/thesis/presentation.tex
</snip>

For reference these are the texlive packages I installed:

<snip>
$ guix package --list-installed | grep texlive
texlive-concmath-otf    66594                   out 
/gnu/store/3xcd0ggqw268h47m6ydvrq0q4rmf5zm4-texlive-concmath-otf-66594
texlive-cmupint         66594                   out 
/gnu/store/pb22zhac68a8k6d3684rv2b4gj926y7l-texlive-cmupint-66594
texlive-cm-unicode      66594                   out 
/gnu/store/6hrb17sg28g5mf2ikd5f4farwmiabk6m-texlive-cm-unicode-66594

$ guix home describe --list-installed='texlive-*'
 Generation 160  ott 16 2023 09:07:04    (current)
  file name: /var/guix/profiles/per-user/mario/guix-home-160-link
  canonical file name: /gnu/store/0kas044z218jr31661vdy2jf7pmsqdhk-home
  channels:
    guix:
      repository URL: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git
      branch: master
      commit: 9b77bd0b9b4f3de69390da0ba7db5b9dbc01e554
    nonguix:
      repository URL: https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix
      branch: master
      commit: 5e5167168efbdaf561a53edd5622531f411a051b
  configuration file: 
/gnu/store/xfn5ikvj1rgdzs51ppq1kwj60qxgh6zk-configuration.scm
  packages:
    texlive-scheme-medium       66594   out 
/gnu/store/rqndj9hy42d7ln5yy0ikmq5nxp6m043d-texlive-scheme-medium-66594
    texlive-asana-math          66594   out 
/gnu/store/cznng0m9c3aqpbw7idw3z4l1mn4nn3sl-texlive-asana-math-66594
    texlive-latex-bin           66594   out 
/gnu/store/vi0cr68279q3d6f2217cxbf45xrxp6vp-texlive-latex-bin-66594
    texlive-pdfx                66594   out 
/gnu/store/46c4c5lqqj86qrpldz2532w7p19bja6x-texlive-pdfx-66594
    texlive-cabin               66594   out 
/gnu/store/wlcwkgj7rp7pnx0dvmchmhdnm2yrmf8l-texlive-cabin-66594
    texlive-concrete            66594   out 
/gnu/store/53xqziaid6i7apgnc916mdwgi0mkyrin-texlive-concrete-66594
    texlive-beton               66594   out 
/gnu/store/8vasp88pgbhx5qsccdnap5l02b1lag2y-texlive-beton-66594
    texlive-concmath            66594   out 
/gnu/store/b1xhcv873zvivkivkavdph7ld70x6d30-texlive-concmath-66594
    texlive-ccfonts             66594   out 
/gnu/store/1m24hz3jm6ypf208902cz1qb6bcwb253-texlive-ccfonts-66594
    texlive-etbb                66594   out 
/gnu/store/blkgyzwmk6m4wmsyf1n2dlm6lj9ivf6j-texlive-etbb-66594
    texlive-fbb                 66594   out 
/gnu/store/pm1j0iv593fqfwl2by1r2ix7f9rps406-texlive-fbb-66594
    texlive-ly1                 66594   out 
/gnu/store/pzbjd2yg1xshfpyz89mcr3i5yn2x49fl-texlive-ly1-66594
    texlive-eulervm             66594   out 
/gnu/store/bwr4j5almkza8fw5989vd23bz7lr5fsx-texlive-eulervm-66594
    texlive-eulerpx             66594   out 
/gnu/store/dnzszhddk0ppmigq54fsky7wpx7vjj85-texlive-eulerpx-66594
    texlive-xmpincl             66594   out 
/gnu/store/jzsq2kk4f0m2s6i9xldg361zdhyw27bv-texlive-xmpincl-66594
    texlive-breakurl            66594   out 
/gnu/store/04l7bmkb5xd43l95icaafa22rvszzg8r-texlive-breakurl-66594
    texlive-physics             66594   out 
/gnu/store/d80g72gifxik8c4vy8akp0cs1jd3cq9i-texlive-physics-66594
    texlive-wrapfig             66594   out 
/gnu/store/lyz6sm75mq3d0j2y08iiajml9sm5qy0b-texlive-wrapfig-66594
    texlive-hyperref            66594   out 
/gnu/store/2g23q5adznq03rvkxrlgzhcng8z3882r-texlive-hyperref-66594
    texlive-hyperxmp            66594   out 
/gnu/store/xql82lsh0yn15v9k4d9nzxqr6v8qdsqz-texlive-hyperxmp-66594
    texlive-ifmtarg             66594   out 
/gnu/store/37aw16q11ancy51ralcn4dc2grahgqsy-texlive-ifmtarg-66594
    texlive-palatino            66594   out 
/gnu/store/b183inwmg5k17navgw52smhav3zssqm8-texlive-palatino-66594
    texlive-amsfonts            66594   out 
/gnu/store/0ab193snbbq7h2c6fnf10fhwrnr5gmpb-texlive-amsfonts-66594
    texlive-charter             66594   out 
/gnu/store/46ybzxp18fqi1k83654bjnl656w4pd97-texlive-charter-66594
    texlive-cm                  66594   out 
/gnu/store/an16s3x631z5qd7msv24g7y2nyv26njr-texlive-cm-66594
    texlive-cm-super            66594   out 
/gnu/store/vd2sp19f1vn9pz6z96j89v21saqfpd86-texlive-cm-super-66594
    texlive-ec                  66594   out 
/gnu/store/fq1f9hv2hpp3pf823skgw84acx607mph-texlive-ec-66594
    texlive-iwona               66594   out 
/gnu/store/hvvgjvzhmrxjwg8d7dilwakvpqxh38z8-texlive-iwona-66594
    texlive-knuth-lib           66594   out 
/gnu/store/nxjbmpd3r6cbamhgdb0f9i2mlwz66dwd-texlive-knuth-lib-66594
    texlive-fontaxes            66594   out 
/gnu/store/i68xphnnwmlqq15gkgpn057n04ly9li7-texlive-fontaxes-66594
    texlive-geometry            66594   out 
/gnu/store/swmnz5vrdxr7ax9iyx0jkxw9yar8mikj-texlive-geometry-66594
    texlive-latex               66594   out 
/gnu/store/016zjnvgyw7nlgyh87d9bafaavlhrjcw-texlive-latex-66594
    texlive-lm                  66594   out 
/gnu/store/8bkfl7xyqk0fz0fvwdq97n7ql5lana87-texlive-lm-66594
    texlive-mflogo-font         66594   out 
/gnu/store/zy0qjmicb65dr11vgb0akbs995q91ysh-texlive-mflogo-font-66594
    texlive-newtx               66594   out 
/gnu/store/0a4q3f557g7i0wh5hggy3bhhmi09n4qr-texlive-newtx-66594
    texlive-newtxsf             66594   out 
/gnu/store/yflymi4g5s705x8im5cpbnn5g67jjhm4-texlive-newtxsf-66594
    texlive-newtxtt             66594   out 
/gnu/store/x4n527jr63rhfl4p69dc2dp7n5xa71qv-texlive-newtxtt-66594
    texlive-rsfs                66594   out 
/gnu/store/53rf39y8wxl1mvhprpk9yzrkrqnvwvvx-texlive-rsfs-66594
    texlive-stmaryrd            66594   out 
/gnu/store/bm6vpk4v832lj1fjn44q6pfqr0z1b0lj-texlive-stmaryrd-66594
    texlive-txfonts             66594   out 
/gnu/store/ss5bbl2sf7rkbd57mgihayryjb29qsqh-texlive-txfonts-66594
    texlive-xypic               66594   out 
/gnu/store/gn0p3l0b0z29223b0db4z5yjwldkpb9k-texlive-xypic-66594
    texlive-xstring             66594   out 
/gnu/store/a15ka7hvyrk97dm8gphxs4swsvx22496-texlive-xstring-66594
    texlive-beamer              66594   out 
/gnu/store/afwf8nmmsmjl6wr0wn5kzm59jv8jpmhl-texlive-beamer-66594
</snip>

Hopefully thunderbird did not butcher the output too much... I also see similar 
compile times with pdflatex.

Am I the only one experiencing this? Are my expectations too high when it comes 
to compilation time?

Have a good day
--
Mario