[iVoka]

Hello!

I have been wondering for some time if removing the helpful comments from AMX Mod X's config files (like amxx.cfg, plugins.ini and so on) would lead to any performance improvements, because it seems that more than a few people I know are using this technique, saying that it's an optimization that should speed things up.

I have not seen any information on the net regarding this matter and I tend to believe that they are wrong, but would like to hear the opinion of some more experienced people.

[NAQQASH]

If comments are not even going to execute then how they can effect server's performance.
Like in many plugins you'll see disclaimers, GPL information, but when you compile them the plugin will only recognize those words which are necessary for it.

None of the cfg recognizes words which starts with "; // " etc.

[Arkshine]

Technically, it will be faster because you call less native. But, reading a file is fast already and just few lines in less won't change anything, at least won't be noticeable.

[rhelgeby]

When improving performance, go for stuff that really needs to be optimized, not trivial stuff like comments in configs.

Places to look for improvements is stuff like expensive and complex tasks. However, what's most important is stuff that's repeated a lot. Even though the task is simple itself, it could be a slowdown if repeated many times.

Config files are usually just parsed once every time a map is loaded. You'll probably just save a few microseconds (or even nanoseconds) by removing some comments. The result is a server which looks exactly as fast as before, and a config file that might be more difficult to read (because of missing documentation comments).

[fysiks]

You won't see ANY difference on any file that is read before players enter the server (files read ing plugin_init, plugin_precache, plugin_cfg). The only files that it would help on are files that are read mid-game which are very rare. The only file that I can think of that is read mid-game is users.ini but that is still essentially negligible because it is only read when you use amx_reloadadmins.

[ARES[ro]]

Well if you had 3+ literature books of text in a huge comment in one of the files then yeah...

[Exolent[jNr]]

Originally Posted by ARES[ro] Well if you had 3+ literature books of text in a huge comment in one of the files then yeah...

Thank you for posting without contributing anything.

Removing comments only slightly (and very slightly such that you won't notice) improves performance for large files when they are manually being read by a plugin.
Config files that are executed won't have a performance increase from removing these comments.

[iVoka]

Thank you all for the clarification.

[hleV]

Since most of the files are read only once (during the start up of the server/map), it's useless to remove comments (which in many cases are useful to be kept).

[ARES[ro]]

Originally Posted by Exolent[jNr] Thank you for posting without contributing anything.

No problem.

Also aside from getting bashed by our top moderators like I ever did anything to them or any of their friends, you shouldnt even bother cleaning your .cfg files of comments, but if you have the "wait" command in them then remove them I dont find any use for those server-side and its not threaded it just wastes a frame.