vgrnt Gem Version Build Status

vgrnt is a partial reimplementation of a few vagrant operations that I found to be unbearably slow in my typical usage. Here's a benchmark on my quad-core 2013 MacBook Pro:

time vagrant status
#    real 0m2.895s

time vgrnt status
#    real 0m0.316s

This is achieved by naively reimplementing these commands, without requiring superfluous gems. Given how ashamed I am of the ugly hacks involved, the name vgrnt was chosen to be deliberately unpronouncable. If you must use it, probably best to keep it to yourself.

Usage

vgrnt status

Same as vagrant status but faster. 

vgrnt status

Does its dirty work by sneaking around in your Vagrantfile and the ./.vagrant directory.

vgrnt ssh

Same as vagrant ssh but faster.

vgrnt ssh
vgrnt ssh vm-name   # supports multi-vm environments
vgrnt ssh -- ls /tmp  # extra ssh args after --

Will read .vgrnt-sshconfig file for SSH options, or try to guess the options by shelling out to VBoxManage.

vgrnt ssh-config

Runs vgrnt ssh-config > .vgrnt-sshconfig. Use this if vgrnt ssh doesn't seem to work, because you have a non-standard setup.

vgrnt ssh-config
# =>    creates .vgrnt-sshconfig; will get picked up by 'vgrnt ssh'

vgrnt ssh-config vm-name  # supports multi-vm environments

vgrnt vboxmanage

Simplifies calling VBoxManage on the already created VM. Injects the VM ID (eg 0398e43a-d35f-4c84-bc81-6807f5d11262) in the right spot. 

vgrnt vboxmanage showvminfo --details
# =>    equivalent to: VBoxManage showvminfo 0398e43a-d35f-4c84-bc81-6807f5d11262 --details

vgrnt vboxmanage vm-name showvminfo   # supports multi-vm environments

Certain VBoxManage subcommands have irregular syntax, so you need to specify where to inject the VM_ID token:

vgrnt vboxmanage metrics query VM_ID 
# =>    VBoxManage metrics query 0398e43a-d35f-4c84-bc81-6807f5d11262

vgrnt np

Same as VAGRANT_NO_PLUGINS=1 vagrant <args>. Useful for speeding up any command vgrnt doesn't support.

vgrnt np provision
# Executing "VAGRANT_NO_PLUGINS=1 vagrant provision"

Installation

vgrnt should not be installed as a vagrant plugin. Instead, just install the gem:

gem install vgrnt --no-rdoc --no-ri

vgrnt only works with Vagrant 1.1+ running on Linux/OSX, with the VirtualBox provider.

Why is Vagrant slow?

Vagrant itself isn't actually slow. The lag is mostly as a result of popular but poorly constructed plugins:

time vgrnt ssh -- '/bin/true'
#    real 0m0.387s

time vagrant ssh -- '/bin/true'
#    real 0m2.102s

for P in $(vagrant plugin list | awk '{print $1}' ) ; do 
  vagrant plugin uninstall $P
done
#    Uninstalling the 'vagrant-berkshelf' plugin...
#    Uninstalling the 'vagrant-cachier' plugin...
#    Uninstalling the 'vagrant-omnibus' plugin...

time vagrant ssh -- '/bin/true'
#    real 0m0.716s

In my case, the culprit is vagrant-berkshelf eager-loading dependencies. However, any vagrant plugins introduce lag, so perhaps Vagrant's plugin architecture could be modified to make this less of a problem.

Caveats

  • At the moment, it requires OSX/Linux and Virtualbox.
  • Only works from vagrant project root, not in a subfolder

Todo

Development

To hack on this plugin, do the following:

# fork the repo to your account

# clone your fork, and create a feature branch to work on
git clone https://github.com/USERNAME/vgrnt.git
cd vgrnt
git checkout -b MY-NEW-FEATURE

# installs the vagrant gem, which is a dev dependency
bundle install

# hack on the plugin
vim lib/vgrnt/base.rb # or any other file

# test out your changes in the context of this repo
cd spec/acceptance/fixtures/simple
bundle exec vgrnt ssh -- 'ls /tmp'

# run ALL the tests (not just unit)
bundle exec rake acceptance:prepare  # spin up VMs to test against
bundle exec rake spec
bundle exec rake acceptance:clean  # destroy testing VMs

# commit, push, and do a pull-request

See DEVNOTES.md for the notes I compiled while developing this plugin.