Hello The file uhyphens.tex is just a list of word hyphenations where I don't agree with the breaks that TeX gives (I insist on pre-1980s rules for English!). For example: \hyphenation{% ..... abo-lished ..... con-tri-butes ..... } At the moment I am using XeTeX-type font calls while I work out other aspects of ConTexT. If that is all that is holding things up I can go over to ConTexT's native system if necessary, though in a typical file header I would have dozens of fonts to load. Here is what I have at present: \definefont[ubsreight][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Regular*oldstyle at 8pt] \definefont[ubsieight][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Italic*oldstyle at 8pt] \definefont[ubsbeight][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Italic*oldstyle at 8pt] \definefont[ubspreight][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Regular*altfont at 8pt] \definefont[ubsrten][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Regular*oldstyle at 10pt] \definefont[ubsiten][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Italic*oldstyle at 10pt] \definefont[ubsbten][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Italic*oldstyle at 10pt] \definefont[ubsprten][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Regular*altfont at 10pt] \definefont[runheadrom][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Regular*altfont at 10.5pt] \definefont[runheadit][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Italic*altfont at 10.5pt] Best wishes John *🇪🇺 * Слава Україні! * 🇺🇦* http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail Virus-free.www.avg.com http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> On Fri, 20 Jun 2025 at 12:26, Wolfgang Schuster < wolfgang.schuster.lists@gmail.com> wrote:

Am 20.06.2025 um 12:42 schrieb John Was:

...

Hello

I am using a very short experimental file of five pages to acquaint myself with ConTexT, and find that processing takes a long time (over a minute or sometimes over two minutes) because at every run it is checking on paths etc. - mainly verifying and searching for fonts.

Is there some way to prevent this, either by a command within the file or by giving something after -- when I invoke ConText (which I do from the Windows command line)?

I shall paste below a short section of a very long log (1452 lines) so that ConTexperts can see what I mean.

Best wishes

John *🇪🇺 * Слава Україні!*🇺🇦 *

system > system > ConTeXt ver: 2025.02.28 18:12 LMTX fmt: 2025.6.8 int: english/english system > system > 'cont-new.mkxl' loaded open source > level 1, order 1, name 'C:/texlive/2025/texmf-dist/ tex/context/base/mkxl/cont-new.mkxl' system > beware: some patches loaded from cont-new.mkiv close source > level 1, order 1, name 'C:/texlive/2025/texmf-dist/ tex/context/base/mkxl/cont-new.mkxl' system > 'cont-sys.mkxl' loaded open source > level 1, order 2, name 'C:/texlive/2025/texmf-dist/ tex/context/texlive/cont-sys.mkxl' close source > level 1, order 2, name 'C:/texlive/2025/texmf-dist/ tex/context/texlive/cont-sys.mkxl' system > files > jobname './GHILexp', input './GHILexp.tex', result './GHILexp' fonts > latin modern fonts are not preloaded languages > language 'en' is active open source > level 1, order 3, name './GHILexp.tex' fonts > checks > registering extra script 'auto' fonts > preloading latin modern fonts (second stage) fonts > 'fallback modern rm 12pt' is loaded backend > profiles > setting format 'pdf/ua-2' to 'pdf/ua-2' backend > profiles > forcing pdf version 2.0, compression level 3, object compression level 3 backend > profiles > permitted colorspaces: rgb 'yes', cmyk 'yes' colors > defining > supported models: gray 'true', rgb 'true', cmyk 'true', spot 'true' transparencies > support > transparency is supported viewerlayers > viewerlayers are not supported backend > xmp > using file 'C:/texlive/2025/texmf-dist/tex/ context/base/mkiv/lpdf-pua.xml' open source > level 2, order 4, name 'D:/TEXFILES/TEXINPUT/TEXDOCS/ UNIDEFS/uhyphens.tex' close source > level 2, order 4, name 'D:/TEXFILES/TEXINPUT/TEXDOCS/ UNIDEFS/uhyphens.tex'

Why is uhyphens.tex loaded and what is its content?

...

structure > sectioning > chapter @ level 2 : 0.1 -> The rain in Spain... fonts > defining > font 'BaskervilleMTPro-Regular', feature 'locl', script 'latn', no language 'dflt' fonts > names > font database has mismatching configuration and file hashes

Show your font setup, something is wrong with it and triggers a refresh of the database.

Wolfgang

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___________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Wolfgang The hyphenation exceptions look much more complicated than my simple file - but at any rate it can't be that that's causing all this processing time. Here is the result of the mtxrun command you sent: identifier familyname fontname filename subfont instances baskervillemtprobold baskervillemtpro baskervillemtprobold c:/windows/fonts/BaskervilleMTPro-Bold.otf baskervillemtproboldit baskervillemtpro baskervillemtproboldit c:/windows/fonts/BaskervilleMTPro-BoldIt.otf baskervillemtprobolditalic baskervillemtpro baskervillemtproboldit c:/windows/fonts/BaskervilleMTPro-BoldIt.otf baskervillemtproitalic baskervillemtpro baskervillemtproitalic c:/windows/fonts/BaskervilleMTPro-Italic.otf baskervillemtpronormal baskervillemtpro baskervillemtproregular c:/windows/fonts/BaskervilleMTPro-Regular.otf baskervillemtproregular baskervillemtpro baskervillemtproregular c:/windows/fonts/BaskervilleMTPro-Regular.otf I don't think that ConTexT is repeatedly searching for Baskerville in particular (though after just a few days I can't claim any expertise in reading ConTexT log files). But it does seem to want to survey the entire database of fonts, whether or not I need them. I don't know if it would help to call a font specifically from its file location, which I have occasionally had to do for exotic sorts that are rarely required, e.g. (from my days of typesetting the *Medieval Latin Dictionary from British Sources*), in XeTeX style: \font\mldrten="[D:/BACKUPS/FONTBKUP/MLD/MLD-Regular.ttf]" at 10pt Best wishes John *🇪🇺 * Слава Україні! * 🇺🇦* http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail Virus-free.www.avg.com http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> On Fri, 20 Jun 2025 at 13:55, Wolfgang Schuster < wolfgang.schuster.lists@gmail.com> wrote:

Am 20.06.2025 um 14:18 schrieb John Was:

...

Hello

The file uhyphens.tex is just a list of word hyphenations where I don't agree with the breaks that TeX gives (I insist on pre-1980s rules for English!). For example:

\hyphenation{% ..... abo-lished ..... con-tri-butes ..... }

Context has a wrapper for the \hyphentation command which lists the exceptions to the language given in the first agument (e.g. english in the following example).

\starttext

\hyphenatedword{abolished} \hyphenatedword{contributes}

\startexceptions[en] abo-lished con-tri-butes \stopexceptions

\hyphenatedword{abolished} \hyphenatedword{contributes}

\stoptext

...

At the moment I am using XeTeX-type font calls while I work out other aspects of ConTexT. If that is all that is holding things up I can go over to ConTexT's native system if necessary, though in a typical file header I would have dozens of fonts to load. Here is what I have at present:

\definefont[ubsreight][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Regular*oldstyle at 8pt] \definefont[ubsieight][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Italic*oldstyle at 8pt] \definefont[ubsbeight][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Italic*oldstyle at 8pt] \definefont[ubspreight][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Regular*altfont at 8pt] \definefont[ubsrten][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Regular*oldstyle at 10pt] \definefont[ubsiten][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Italic*oldstyle at 10pt] \definefont[ubsbten][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Italic*oldstyle at 10pt] \definefont[ubsprten][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Regular*altfont at 10pt] \definefont[runheadrom][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Regular*altfont at 10.5pt] \definefont[runheadit][file:BaskervilleMTPro-Italic*altfont at 10.5pt]

Replacing your lowlevel font loading with the proper method is something you have to do at some point.

For the beginning let us find the problem with the database refresh.

What is the output when you ask the database for all files of the baskerville fonts, to do this use the following input on the command line:

mtxrun --script fonts --list --all --pattern=baskervillemtpro*

Wolfgang

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maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl webpage : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror) archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context wiki : https://wiki.contextgarden.net

___________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Wolfgang Both of these process very quickly - 2 seconds for each separately, and less than that if I put the Baskerville definition plus simple text after the default Comp. Modern text. Best wishes John *🇪🇺 * Слава Україні! * 🇺🇦* http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail Virus-free.www.avg.com http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> On Fri, 20 Jun 2025 at 14:36, Wolfgang Schuster < wolfgang.schuster.lists@gmail.com> wrote:

Am 20.06.2025 um 15:18 schrieb John Was:

...

Dear Wolfgang

The hyphenation exceptions look much more complicated than my simple file - but at any rate it can't be that that's causing all this processing time.

Here is the result of the mtxrun command you sent:

identifier familyname fontname filename subfont instances

baskervillemtprobold baskervillemtpro baskervillemtprobold c:/windows/fonts/BaskervilleMTPro-Bold.otf baskervillemtproboldit baskervillemtpro baskervillemtproboldit c:/windows/fonts/BaskervilleMTPro-BoldIt.otf baskervillemtprobolditalic baskervillemtpro baskervillemtproboldit c:/windows/fonts/BaskervilleMTPro-BoldIt.otf baskervillemtproitalic baskervillemtpro baskervillemtproitalic c:/windows/fonts/BaskervilleMTPro-Italic.otf baskervillemtpronormal baskervillemtpro baskervillemtproregular c:/windows/fonts/BaskervilleMTPro-Regular.otf baskervillemtproregular baskervillemtpro baskervillemtproregular c:/windows/fonts/BaskervilleMTPro-Regular.otf

I don't think that ConTexT is repeatedly searching for Baskerville in particular (though after just a few days I can't claim any expertise in reading ConTexT log files). But it does seem to want to survey the entire database of fonts, whether or not I need them.

I don't know if it would help to call a font specifically from its file location, which I have occasionally had to do for exotic sorts that are rarely required, e.g. (from my days of typesetting the /Medieval Latin Dictionary from British Sources/), in XeTeX style:

\font\mldrten="[D:/BACKUPS/FONTBKUP/MLD/MLD-Regular.ttf]" at 10pt

Does it make a differenece if you typeset a simple document with the baskerville fonts

\starttext \definedfont[file:BaskervilleMTPro-Regular.otf*default] Hello \CONTEXT! \stoptext

or the default latin modern fonts?

\starttext Hello \CONTEXT! \stoptext

Wolfgang

___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl webpage : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror) archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context wiki : https://wiki.contextgarden.net

___________________________________________________________________________________

Am 20.06.25 um 17:22 schrieb Hans Hagen:

On 6/20/2025 4:06 PM, John Was wrote:

...

Dear Wolfgang

Both of these process very quickly - 2 seconds for each separately, and less than that if I put the Baskerville definition plus simple text after the default Comp. Modern text.

on a bit recent machine (say 5 years old) a simple few page run with lation modern should run way below a second and unless you do complex stuff performance should be some 30-40 pages per second .. if not, there is an issue with your installation

E.g. if TEXINPUT is set to a big tree, TeX will look through that for every file. (I had TEXINPUT.lualatex set for a LaTeX project and it increased processing time with that engine by minutes.) Hraban

On 6/22/2025 5:43 PM, John Was wrote:

Hello

I completely removed all iterations of texlive from the spare computer I'm using for ConTexT (which is quite old - 2013), and reinstalled texlive this morning.  I'm still getting the same long list of font files being checked, but the run is down to 20 seconds if I log on as administrator, and that's just about tolerable for now while I'm experimenting.  I may set up on a more modern machine in the fullness of time!

it should not regenerate the font database every time; maybe only when a font is not found by name luametatex (lmtx) was mostly developped on a 2013 machine and the current one is a 2018 one ... and the difference is actualy not large Hans ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------

On 6/22/2025 6:03 PM, John Was wrote:

Yes, it's an odd thing - even odder now since the last two runs have been much faster.  This without any intervention from me.  It will be interesting to see what happens when I switch off and resume tomorrow. But it's not a serious issue for me at the moment since I'm only using the machine to experiment with various features of the program.

just try this after a fresh start: context --make context --make and note the difference in reported time ... the operating system caches files and programs like tex benefits from this in the past when running on a network share - in most cases we use(d) opensuse linux servers - using e.g. installations like texlive was basically impossible due to the size which is why we had the minimal distributions, also for pdfex/mkii; i think that over time kpse lookups improved a bit but is is one of the reasons why we had agressive caching in the runners (texexec etc) just so to limit the number of nested kpsewhich database loading overhead and kept startup time bearable in the meantime startup time of a context run in lmtx should be below .5 seconds and that includes the runner as well as the engine (and on modern systems below .25 sec but i can't check that as i only have laptop hardware pre 2018 to test on) Hans ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------

On 6/22/2025 5:16 PM, Henning Hraban Ramm wrote:

Am 20.06.25 um 17:22 schrieb Hans Hagen:

...

On 6/20/2025 4:06 PM, John Was wrote:

...

Dear Wolfgang

Both of these process very quickly - 2 seconds for each separately, and less than that if I put the Baskerville definition plus simple text after the default Comp. Modern text.

on a bit recent machine (say 5 years old) a simple few page run with lation modern should run way below a second and unless you do complex stuff performance should be some 30-40 pages per second .. if not, there is an issue with your installation

E.g. if TEXINPUT is set to a big tree, TeX will look through that for every file. (I had TEXINPUT.lualatex set for a LaTeX project and it increased processing time with that engine by minutes.)

It's TEXINPIUTS, plural, right? Anyway: mtxrun --configurations will show you where the configuration files are looked for. There you see how TEXMF is configured, like TEXMF = "{$TEXMFHOME,!!$TEXMFPROJECT,!!$TEXMFFONTS,!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFMODULES,!!$TEXMFCONTEXT,!!$TEXMFSYSTEM,!!$TEXMFMAIN}", You can prefix $TEXMFHOME by !! and it then will get hashed (mtxrun --generate). However, I never use that HOME one and actually nil it. All project files go into texmf-project and extra fonts in texmf-fonts. I don't know how you configured it but you get the idea. It might be a plan to add some sanitizer here, like ignore all non context paths but keep modules and generic because there's where we have the few generic thing useable. However, normally one runs a small installation so ... Hans ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------