Here is a quick note about using zsh and vcs_info with WebDAV mounts.
vcs_info is a built-in feature in zsh which lets you show VCS information
if the current working dir is a git, svn or bazaar repository. It is used by
tools like oh-my-zsh and powerlevel9k; and basically uses VCS tools to
extract data: for example, it will use git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree to
know if the current folder is a git worktree.
This feature will make these calls each time your shell shows the prompt, for example:
- when you change the current working directory
- when a command exits
So each time the prompt will be shown to you, vcs_info will make extra file
accesses in order to know if the current working directory is a repo. If it's
not, it will check against the parent directories until finding a .git
directory or encountering a filesystem boundary.
In my case each stat() syscall costs between 200 and 300 ms inside my WebDAV
mount (a NextCloud installation). If we consider the dir
~/NextCloud/dirA/dirB/dirC/dirD/dirE, git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree
will spend more than one second each time your shell will show you a prompt.
Say hello to disable-patterns, an option that lets you give directory
patterns in which vcs_info should not run. Considering that my WebDAV mount
is mounted in ~/NextCloud, I must add the following line in ~/.zshrc (or
any config file if you use a custom system for zsh):
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' disable-patterns "${(b)HOME}/NextCloud(|/*)"
Reload your shell, now prompts in the mount should be instant.
Enjoy!