---
title: "Profiling ZSH"
date: 2022-01-23T11:35:38-08:00
description: In which I learn about how to profile my ZSH init files.
draft: false
categories: ["Tech"]
tags: ["ZSH", "Dotfiles"]
---

I've been hacking on my [dotfiles][dotfiles] a lot lately. One of the things
that has bothered me about my shell setup is how long it takes zsh to start up.
I did some research and found this [blog post][debug-zsh] from someone who
undertook the same project.

TIL, ZSH has a profiler built in. You can start it by calling the following.

{{< figures/code >}}
```zsh
zmodload zsh/zprof
```
{{< /figures/code >}}

Then, once you're done, you call `zprof` to get a report that tells you where
ZSH is spending most of its time. I put the line above at the top of my
`.zshenv` and then called `zprof` at the end of my `.zshrc`.

Over the years, my shell init has grown organically in various ways as needs
arise. I add things, hack around to make things work, and don't generally pay
attention to the overall structure of it. I've also frankly never spent a lot of
time to learn the quirks of how ZSH behaves, and the most efficient ways of
doing things. So, when I started this process, my init was taking close to a
second. By the end, it was down to about 100 ms. Not bad for a couple hours of
work. :)

[dotfiles]: https://github.com/erynofwales/dotfiles
[debug-zsh]: https://collectednotes.com/gillchristian/debugging-zsh-init-times