Doom Emacs unresponsive for a few seconds when switching apps

[kamransoomro84]

I confirm that...

• I searched the FAQ, issue tracker, discussions board, documentation, and wiki, and found nothing about my issue.

• I read the debugging guide and researched the issue to the best of my ability.

• My issue can be observed on the latest available commit of Doom.

• My issue can be observed on a stable release of Emacs (i.e. doesn't end in .50, .60, or .9*)

Describe your issue

I am running emacs on an M2 Mac. Whenever I switch to another app and then back to emacs, it becomes unresponsive for a few seconds. I have tried profiling it but do not see anything that might be blocking. I tried the sandbox and can confirm that the behaviour disappears in vanilla Doom but appears in Doom + modules - private config.

Not sure which modules might be causing the issue. My init.el file is below:

;;; init.el -*- lexical-binding: t; -*-

;; This file controls what Doom modules are enabled and what order they load
;; in. Remember to run 'doom sync' after modifying it!

;; NOTE Press 'SPC h d h' (or 'C-h d h' for non-vim users) to access Doom's
;;      documentation. There you'll find a link to Doom's Module Index where all
;;      of our modules are listed, including what flags they support.

;; NOTE Move your cursor over a module's name (or its flags) and press 'K' (or
;;      'C-c c k' for non-vim users) to view its documentation. This works on
;;      flags as well (those symbols that start with a plus).
;;
;;      Alternatively, press 'gd' (or 'C-c c d') on a module to browse its
;;      directory (for easy access to its source code).

(doom! :input
       ;;bidi              ; (tfel ot) thgir etirw uoy gnipleh
       ;;chinese
       ;;japanese
       ;;layout            ; auie,ctsrnm is the superior home row

       :completion
       ;;company           ; the ultimate code completion backend
       (corfu +orderless)  ; complete with cap(f), cape and a flying feather!
       ;;helm              ; the *other* search engine for love and life
       ;;ido               ; the other *other* search engine...
       ;; ivy               ; a search engine for love and life
       (vertico +childframe +icons)           ; the search engine of the future

       :ui
       ;;deft              ; notational velocity for Emacs
       doom              ; what makes DOOM look the way it does
       doom-dashboard    ; a nifty splash screen for Emacs
       ;;doom-quit         ; DOOM quit-message prompts when you quit Emacs
       ;;(emoji +unicode)  ; 🙂
       hl-todo           ; highlight TODO/FIXME/NOTE/DEPRECATED/HACK/REVIEW
       indent-guides     ; highlighted indent columns
       ligatures         ; ligatures and symbols to make your code pretty again
       ;;minimap           ; show a map of the code on the side
       modeline          ; snazzy, Atom-inspired modeline, plus API
       ;;nav-flash         ; blink cursor line after big motions
       ;; neotree           ; a project drawer, like NERDTree for vim
       ophints           ; highlight the region an operation acts on
       (popup +defaults)   ; tame sudden yet inevitable temporary windows
       smooth-scroll     ; So smooth you won't believe it's not butter
       tabs              ; a tab bar for Emacs
       treemacs          ; a project drawer, like neotree but cooler
       ;;unicode           ; extended unicode support for various languages
       (vc-gutter +pretty) ; vcs diff in the fringe
       vi-tilde-fringe   ; fringe tildes to mark beyond EOB
       window-select     ; visually switch windows
       workspaces        ; tab emulation, persistence & separate workspaces
       zen               ; distraction-free coding or writing

       :editor
       (evil +everywhere); come to the dark side, we have cookies
       file-templates    ; auto-snippets for empty files
       fold              ; (nigh) universal code folding
       (format +onsave)  ; automated prettiness
       ;;god               ; run Emacs commands without modifier keys
       ;;lispy             ; vim for lisp, for people who don't like vim
       multiple-cursors  ; editing in many places at once
       ;; objed             ; text object editing for the innocent
       ;;parinfer          ; turn lisp into python, sort of
       ;;rotate-text       ; cycle region at point between text candidates
       snippets          ; my elves. They type so I don't have to
       word-wrap         ; soft wrapping with language-aware indent

       :emacs
       dired             ; making dired pretty [functional]
       electric          ; smarter, keyword-based electric-indent
       eww               ; the internet is gross
       ibuffer           ; interactive buffer management
       undo              ; persistent, smarter undo for your inevitable mistakes
       vc                ; version-control and Emacs, sitting in a tree

       :term
       ;;eshell            ; the elisp shell that works everywhere
       ;; shell             ; simple shell REPL for Emacs
       ;;term              ; basic terminal emulator for Emacs
       vterm             ; the best terminal emulation in Emacs

       :checkers
       syntax              ; tasing you for every semicolon you forget
       (spell +flyspell) ; tasing you for misspelling mispelling
       ;;grammar           ; tasing grammar mistake every you make

       :tools
       ansible
       ;;biblio            ; Writes a PhD for you (citation needed)
       ;;collab            ; buffers with friends
       ;;debugger          ; FIXME stepping through code, to help you add bugs
       ;;direnv
       docker
       ;;editorconfig      ; let someone else argue about tabs vs spaces
       ;;ein               ; tame Jupyter notebooks with emacs
       (eval +overlay)     ; run code, run (also, repls)
       lookup              ; navigate your code and its documentation
       ;;llm               ; when I said you needed friends, I didn't mean...
       (lsp +eglot)        ; M-x vscode
       magit             ; a git porcelain for Emacs
       ;;make              ; run make tasks from Emacs
       ;;pass              ; password manager for nerds
       pdf               ; pdf enhancements
       ;;terraform         ; infrastructure as code
       tmux              ; an API for interacting with tmux
       tree-sitter       ; syntax and parsing, sitting in a tree...
       ;;upload            ; map local to remote projects via ssh/ftp

       :os
       (:if (featurep :system 'macos) macos)  ; improve compatibility with macOS
       ;;tty               ; improve the terminal Emacs experience

       :lang
       ;;agda              ; types of types of types of types...
       ;;beancount         ; mind the GAAP
       ;; (cc +lsp)         ; C > C++ == 1
       ;;clojure           ; java with a lisp
       ;;common-lisp       ; if you've seen one lisp, you've seen them all
       ;;coq               ; proofs-as-programs
       ;;crystal           ; ruby at the speed of c
       ;;csharp            ; unity, .NET, and mono shenanigans
       ;;data              ; config/data formats
       ;;(dart +flutter)   ; paint ui and not much else
       ;;dhall
       ;;elixir            ; erlang done right
       ;;elm               ; care for a cup of TEA?
       emacs-lisp        ; drown in parentheses
       ;;erlang            ; an elegant language for a more civilized age
       ;;ess               ; emacs speaks statistics
       ;;factor
       ;;faust             ; dsp, but you get to keep your soul
       ;;fortran           ; in FORTRAN, GOD is REAL (unless declared INTEGER)
       ;;fsharp            ; ML stands for Microsoft's Language
       ;;fstar             ; (dependent) types and (monadic) effects and Z3
       ;;gdscript          ; the language you waited for
       (go +lsp +tree-sitter)         ; the hipster dialect
       ;;(graphql +lsp)    ; Give queries a REST
       ;;(haskell +lsp)    ; a language that's lazier than I am
       ;;hy                ; readability of scheme w/ speed of python
       ;;idris             ; a language you can depend on
       (json +lsp +tree-sitter)              ; At least it ain't XML
       ;;janet             ; Fun fact: Janet is me!
       ;;(java +lsp)       ; the poster child for carpal tunnel syndrome
       (javascript +lsp +tree-sitter)        ; all(hope(abandon(ye(who(enter(here))))))
       ;;julia             ; a better, faster MATLAB
       ;;kotlin            ; a better, slicker Java(Script)
       (latex +lsp +fold)            ; writing papers in Emacs has never been so fun
       ;;leaN              ; for folks with too much to prove
       ;;ledger            ; be audit you can be
       (lua +lsp +tree-sitter)               ; one-based indices? one-based indices
       (markdown +grip)          ; writing docs for people to ignore
       ;;nim               ; python + lisp at the speed of c
       (nix +tree-sitter +lsp)               ; I hereby declare "nix geht mehr!"
       ;;ocaml             ; an objective camel
       (org +dragndrop +pandoc +present)               ; organize your plain life in plain text
       ;;php               ; perl's insecure younger brother
       ;;plantuml          ; diagrams for confusing people more
       ;;graphviz          ; diagrams for confusing yourself even more
       ;;purescript        ; javascript, but functional
       (python +lsp +tree-sitter)            ; beautiful is better than ugly
       ;;qt                ; the 'cutest' gui framework ever
       ;;racket            ; a DSL for DSLs
       ;;raku              ; the artist formerly known as perl6
       ;;rest              ; Emacs as a REST client
       ;;rst               ; ReST in peace
       ;;(ruby +rails)     ; 1.step {|i| p "Ruby is #{i.even? ? 'love' : 'life'}"}
       (rust +lsp +tree-sitter)       ; Fe2O3.unwrap().unwrap().unwrap().unwrap()
       ;;scala             ; java, but good
       ;;(scheme +guile)   ; a fully conniving family of lisps
       (sh +fish +lsp +tree-sitter)                ; she sells {ba,z,fi}sh shells on the C xor
       ;;sml
       ;;solidity          ; do you need a blockchain? No.
       ;;swift             ; who asked for emoji variables?
       ;;terra             ; Earth and Moon in alignment for performance.
       (web +lsp +tree-sitter)               ; the tubes
       (yaml +lsp +tree-sitter)              ; JSON, but readable
       ;;zig               ; C, but simpler

       :email
       ;;(mu4e +org +gmail)
       ;;notmuch
       ;;(wanderlust +gmail)

       :app
       ;;calendar
       ;;emms
       ;;everywhere        ; *leave* Emacs!? You must be joking
       ;;irc               ; how neckbeards socialize
       ;;(rss +org)        ; emacs as an RSS reader

       :config
       ;;literate
       (default +bindings +smartparens))

Any tips would be welcome.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open Emacs
2. Switch to another app and then back to emacs a few times.

System information

https://pastebin.com/VDXRymB9

[kamransoomro84]

Does anybody have any suggestions please? These delays are making emacs pretty much unusable for me.

[nebel]

@kamransoomro84 If you are using Raycast, configure the "Search Menu Items" built-in extension to exclude Emacs from menu item scanning, or disable it entirely if you don't use it. This scanning process makes Emacs (and some other applications with many menu items) unresponsive.

[kamransoomro84]

Thanks for the tip, but I'm not sure that that was the problem. I also noticed that emacs would often miss keystrokes when I pressed them in quick succession. Looking more into it, I discovered that there are multiple "flavours" of emacs and that there was one out there with native Cocoa support. I also use nix darwin and I didn't know about the emacs-overlay before.

So, I then switced to the emacs-overlay, and recompiled emacs without X11 and with Cocoa support. That fixed the issue and now emacs is blazingly fast on my system (other than the initial loading time).