# Terminal interaction and precompile times

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/terminal-interaction-and-precompile-times/135225>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [January 23, 2026, 2:50pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/terminal-interaction-and-precompile-times/135225 "2026-01-23T14:50:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![paulmelis](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/paulmelis/32/35063_2.png) [@paulmelis](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/paulmelis)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2026, 2:50pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/terminal-interaction-and-precompile-times/135225/1 "2026-01-23T14:50:08Z")

</div>

Somewhat related to the other threads on precompile times (such as [thread](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/precompilation-much-slower-in-1-11-1-12-than-in-lts-1-10/135203/13) and [thread](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/new-julia-versions-higher-pluto-loading-times/135187/1)), I was wondering about (perceived) long precompilation for very simple and common operations. These seem to have gotten worse as well, from 1.12 onwards.

For example, with 1.13-beta1 (but similar on 1.12), entering `using` in the REPL when nothing is loaded yet, followed by tab completion is quick, but after loading DataFrames subsequently entering `using<tab>` involves seconds-long stalls:

```julia-auto
melis@blackbox 15:34:/tmp$ j +1.13 --trace-compile-timing --trace-compile=stderr --project
               _
   _ _ _(_)_ | Documentation: https://docs.julialang.org
  (_) | (_) (_) |
   _ _ _| |_ __ _ | Type "?" for help, "]?" for Pkg help.
  | | | | | | |/ _` | |
  | | |_| | | | (_| | | Version 1.13.0-beta1 (2026-01-12)
 _/ |\ __'_|_|_|\__'_| | Official https://julialang.org release
|__/ |

julia> u#= 9.1 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(REPL.REPLCompletions.named_completion), REPL.REPLCompletions.KeywordCompletion})
#= 3.4 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(REPL.REPLCompletions.named_completion), REPL.REPLCompletions.ModuleCompletion})
#= 8.2 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.Order.lt), Base.Order.By{typeof(REPL.REPLCompletions.named_completion_completion), Base.Order.ForwardOrdering}, REPL.REPLCompletions.ModuleCompletion, REPL.REPLCompletions.KeywordCompletion})
#= 5.8 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.Order.lt), Base.Order.Lt{Base.Sort.var"#_sort!##10#_sort!##11"{Base.Order.By{typeof(REPL.REPLCompletions.named_completion_completion), Base.Order.ForwardOrdering}}}, REPL.REPLCompletions.ModuleCompletion, REPL.REPLCompletions.KeywordCompletion})
#= 7.0 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.Order.lt), Base.Order.Lt{Base.Sort.var"#_sort!##10#_sort!##11"{Base.Order.By{typeof(REPL.REPLCompletions.named_completion_completion), Base.Order.ForwardOrdering}}}, REPL.REPLCompletions.ModuleCompletion, REPL.REPLCompletions.ModuleCompletion})
#= 5.6 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.Order.lt), Base.Order.By{typeof(REPL.REPLCompletions.named_completion_completion), Base.Order.ForwardOrdering}, REPL.REPLCompletions.ModuleCompletion, REPL.REPLCompletions.ModuleCompletion})
julia> us#= 161.6 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Core.kwcall), NamedTuple{(:color,), Tuple{Symbol}}, typeof(Base.printstyled), Base.Terminals.TTYTerminal, String})
ing#= 5.1 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.Terminals.cmove_left), Base.Terminals.TTYTerminal, Int64})
julia> using #= 7.9 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.Order.lt), Base.Order.By{typeof(REPL.REPLCompletions.named_completion_completion), Base.Order.ForwardOrdering}, REPL.REPLCompletions.PackageCompletion, REPL.REPLCompletions.PackageCompletion})
#= 6.3 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.Order.lt), Base.Order.Lt{Base.Sort.var"#_sort!##10#_sort!##11"{Base.Order.By{typeof(REPL.REPLCompletions.named_completion_completion), Base.Order.ForwardOrdering}}}, REPL.REPLCompletions.PackageCompletion, REPL.REPLCompletions.PackageCompletion})
julia> using DataFrames
#= 2.8 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.getindex), Base.RefValue{Ptr{UInt8}}})
#= 2.6 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.unsafe_convert), Type{Ptr{Ptr{UInt8}}}, Base.RefValue{Ptr{UInt8}}})
#= 4.4 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.indexed_iterate), Pair{Any, Bool}, Int64})
#= 5.1 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.indexed_iterate), Pair{Any, Bool}, Int64, Int64})

julia> #= 5153.6 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(REPL.LineEdit.refresh_multi_line), Base.Terminals.TerminalBuffer, Base.Terminals.UnixTerminal, Union{REPL.LineEdit.PrefixSearchState, REPL.LineEdit.PromptState}}) # recompile
#= 7.0 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.get), Base.TTY, Symbol, Bool}) # recompile
#= 2.8 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.:(var"==")), Nothing, Bool})
#= 178.1 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.AnnotatedDisplay.ansi_write), typeof(Base.write), Base.IOContext{Base.Terminals.TerminalBuffer}, Base.SubString{Base.AnnotatedString{String}}}) # recompile
julia> using#= 4.3 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.indexed_iterate), Tuple{Nothing, Nothing}, Int64, Int64})
#= 1003.6 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Core.kwcall), NamedTuple{names, T} where T<:Tuple where names, typeof(REPL.LineEdit.complete_line), REPL.REPLCompletionProvider, REPL.LineEdit.PromptState, Module}) # recompile
julia> using

```

If I load `StaticVectors` instead of `DataFrames` then the slow compiles don’t occur, so it appears to be something related to the latter package.

Another example is the common case of getting some error printed when trying to run a script from the command-line (here, incorrect script file name), which is very sluggish as well, in printing the error:

```julia-auto
melis@blackbox 15:36:/tmp$ j +1.13 --trace-compile-timing --trace-compile=stderr --project does-not-exist.jl
#= 9.0 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.scrub_repl_backtrace), Array{Union{Ptr{Nothing}, Base.InterpreterIP}, 1}})
#= 4.6 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.getindex), Pair{Symbol, Bool}, Int64})
#= 543.9 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.display_error), Base.TTY, Base.ExceptionStack})
ERROR: #= 1063.6 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Core.kwcall), NamedTuple{(:backtrace,), Tuple{Bool}}, typeof(Base.showerror), Base.IOContext{Base.TTY}, Base.SystemError, Array{Base.StackTraces.StackFrame, 1}})
SystemError: opening file "/tmp/does-not-exist.jl": No such file or directory#= 6.0 ms =# precompile(Tuple{Base.var"#_backtrace_remove_kwcall_frames!##0#_backtrace_remove_kwcall_frames!##1", Tuple{Base.StackTraces.StackFrame, Int64}})
#= 4.4 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.indexed_iterate), Tuple{Base.StackTraces.StackFrame, Int64}, Int64})
#= 4.4 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.indexed_iterate), Tuple{Base.StackTraces.StackFrame, Int64}, Int64, Int64})
#= 3.4 ms =# precompile(Tuple{Base.var"#846#847", Tuple{Base.StackTraces.StackFrame, Int64}})
#= 3.4 ms =# precompile(Tuple{Base.MappingRF{Base.var"#846#847", Base.BottomRF{typeof(Base.add_sum)}}, Int64, Tuple{Base.StackTraces.StackFrame, Int64}})
#= 3.9 ms =# precompile(Tuple{Base.var"#848#849", Tuple{Base.StackTraces.StackFrame, Int64}})

Stacktrace:
 [1] #= 11.6 ms =# precompile(Tuple{typeof(Core.kwcall), NamedTuple{(:use_color,), Tuple{Bool}}, typeof(Base.print_type_bicolor), Base.IOContext{Base.GenericIOBuffer{Memory{UInt8}}}, Type})
include(mod::Module, _path::String)
   @ Base ./Base.jl:309
 [2] exec_options(opts::Base.JLOptions)
   @ Base ./client.jl:344
 [3] _start()
   @ Base ./client.jl:577

```

There might be very different causes to these two, but both of them (for me) are in the same category, i.e. basic terminal-based interaction with Julia. Having such precompile latencies pop up there doesn’t help in user experience, nor in the perception of Julia to new users. So I was wondering if these are known issues that perhaps don’t get much priority, or if there is something else going on?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gbaraldi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gbaraldi/32/22101_2.png) [@gbaraldi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gbaraldi)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2026, 3:14pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/terminal-interaction-and-precompile-times/135225/2 "2026-01-23T15:14:38Z")

</div>

Dataframes or one of it’s deps is invalidating the REPL

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mattsignorelli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mattsignorelli/32/221502_2.png) [@mattsignorelli](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mattsignorelli)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2026, 3:58pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/terminal-interaction-and-precompile-times/135225/3 "2026-01-23T15:58:48Z")

</div>

Maybe this is related?

> [@Why is v1.12 "more prone to invalidations"?](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-v1-12-more-prone-to-invalidations/134327):
>
> When v1.12.0 was first released some time ago, my precompile script immediately stopped being effective, even though my code was unchanged. In particular, it was ineffective if IJulia.jl was also loaded. The full details are [here](https://github.com/JuliaLang/IJulia.jl/issues/1192), and the maintainer very generously helped reduce the replicator down to [this](https://github.com/JuliaLang/IJulia.jl/issues/1192#issuecomment-3390755056). I am wondering why this happening? And, why would the issue only appear with Julia 1.12 suddenly? At the moment I am pointing all my users to the LTS version of Julia to avoid this issue. Bu…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JamesNZ](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jamesnz/32/35361_2.png) [@JamesNZ](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/JamesNZ)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2026, 5:07pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/terminal-interaction-and-precompile-times/135225/4 "2026-01-23T17:07:02Z")

</div>

Indeed it’s caused by invalidations. Should be fixed in the next 1.13 beta and 1.12 patch release: [JuliaSyntax:force specialize on function in `parse_brackets` by KristofferC · Pull Request #60403 · JuliaLang/julia · GitHub](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/60403)