Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Uninstall plugins
#1
To speed up opening, I'd like to delete some plugins. I probably don't need all of them. But which to delete?

Does anyone know of a general guide to GIMP plugins? I mean a list of all or most plugins, with information as to what each one does, which ones are essential and which optional, and so on?
Reply
#2
Not many Mac users on this forum, and not me. In my opinion not a good idea. 

If Gimp is slow in starting then look for some system (short of disk space/memory) or maybe security issue.

If you really want to try, then do not delete anything. Plugins can be disabled by un-setting the executable flag on the file. Easy enough in linux, not too sure about OSX it will be something like sudo chmod -x path/to/file (and restore with  sudo chmod +x path/to/file )

Then it depends how you use Gimp. The artistic filters maybe never used. Use the plugin browser (in the Gimp Help menu) to find out details of the plugins and what they do.

example:  Showing the attached list of the plugins you should find: https://i.imgur.com/bBJjnue.jpg

Gimp is built around plug-ins. Ones you should not touch: anything starting file-* anything starting py* or python*


Attached Files
.zip   list-plugins.txt.zip (Size: 1.13 KB / Downloads: 251)
Reply
#3
(05-13-2019, 09:53 AM)dslujjj Wrote: To speed up opening, I'd like to delete some plugins. I probably don't need all of them. But which to delete?

Does anyone know of a general guide to GIMP plugins? I mean a list of all or most plugins, with information as to what each one does, which ones are essential and which optional, and so on?

Plugin data is kept in the pluginrc file in your Gimp profile. This includes, among other things, the location of the executable, and the UI menus that are used to call its entries. So you can check the menus you use to figure out what you don't use (with a lot of caution, some things like resynthesize are not used directly but used by other plugins (python scripts for Heal selection and Heal tranparency).

You will also find at the end of the lines that list an executable a large number (typically around 1400000000 or bigger). This is the timestamp of the executable (in seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00). On startup, Gimp looks for executables in specific directories (those in Edit>Preferences>Folders>Plugins). If the executable is already listed in pluginrc, and its timestamp is the same, then Gimp skips it and keeps the current registration data. Otherwise, the executable is run to acquire its registration data (menu entries, parameters...). In other words if the plugins haven't changed, that part is very quick since nothing runs. One problem though is that if you have an executable in the plugin folder that doesn't register properly, it won't be listed in pluginrc and Gimp will retry it on every startup. I once had a rogue instance of wget in such a folder, and the Gimp startup increased significantly (wget didn't return before some network time-out).

On a Mac, you can start Gimp in a terminal (especially with gimp --verbose) to see all messages generated during startup, this may help you find the slow parts. If you have the GNU ts utility, you can get a more precise reporting with:

Code:
gimp 2>&1 | ts "%H:%M:%.S"
Reply
#4
Thanks for replies and the list of plugins.

The gimp --verbose start-up and the pluginrc file didn't really tell me anything I could understand or make use of.

I couldn't get the GIMP-Plugin Registry (http://registry.gimp.org) to load.

Sometimes Gimp has a spell (a few days or longer) during which every time it starts up it queries plugins, hence taking quite a while to get going. Then it will have a spell during which it merely initializes plugins each time it starts up, making for a much quicker launch. I can't see any reason for this inconsistency. It doesn't seem to be related to anything I do. If I could find the answer to that, I might be able to stop it querying plugins so often (or ever).

Probably have to try trial and error after all.
Reply
#5
(05-14-2019, 07:56 AM)slujjj Wrote: Thanks for replies and the list of plugins.

The gimp --verbose start-up and the pluginrc file didn't really tell me anything I could understand or make use of.

I couldn't get the GIMP-Plugin Registry (http://registry.gimp.org) to load.

Sometimes Gimp has a spell (a few days or longer) during which every time it starts up it queries plugins, hence taking quite a while to get going. Then it will have a spell during which it merely initializes plugins each time it starts up, making for a much quicker launch. I can't see any reason for this inconsistency. It doesn't seem to be related to anything I do. If I could find the answer to that, I might be able to stop it querying plugins so often (or ever).

Probably have to try trial and error after all.
A randomly lost/corrupt pluginrc file could explain this behavior.
Reply
#6
Thanks, I'll keep that tip in mind.

Of course, now that I want to try a few ideas, it's gone into one of its good spells.
Reply


Forum Jump: