significantly speed up parsing of easyconfig files by only extracting comments from an easyconfig file when they're actually needed

easybuild/framework/easyconfig/format/format.py

@@ -612,12 +612,17 @@ def __init__(self):
             raise EasyBuildError('Invalid version number %s (incorrect length)', self.VERSION)
 
         self.rawtext = None  # text version of the easyconfig
-        self.comments = {}  # comments in easyconfig file
+        self._comments = {}  # comments in easyconfig file
         self.header = None  # easyconfig header (e.g., format version, license, ...)
         self.docstring = None  # easyconfig docstring (e.g., author, maintainer, ...)
 
         self.specs = {}
 
+    @property
+    def comments(self):
+        """Return comments in easyconfig file"""
+        return self._comments
+
     def set_specifications(self, specs):
         """Set specifications."""
         self.log.debug('Set copy of specs %s' % specs)

easybuild/framework/easyconfig/format/one.py

@@ -135,7 +135,8 @@ def parse(self, txt):
         """
         Pre-process txt to extract header, docstring and pyheader, with non-indented section markers enforced.
         """
-        super(FormatOneZero, self).parse(txt, strict_section_markers=True)
+        self.rawcontent = txt
+        super(FormatOneZero, self).parse(self.rawcontent, strict_section_markers=True)
 
     def _reformat_line(self, param_name, param_val, outer=False, addlen=0):
         """
@@ -356,14 +357,24 @@ def dump(self, ecfg, default_values, templ_const, templ_val, toolchain_hierarchy
 
         return '\n'.join(dump)
 
+    @property
+    def comments(self):
+        """
+        Return comments (and extract them first if needed).
+        """
+        if not self._comments:
+            self.extract_comments(self.rawcontent)
+
+        return self._comments
+
     def extract_comments(self, rawtxt):
         """
         Extract comments from raw content.
 
         Discriminates between comment header, comments above a line (parameter definition), and inline comments.
         Inline comments on items of iterable values are also extracted.
         """
-        self.comments = {
+        self._comments = {
             'above': {},  # comments above a parameter definition
             'header': [],  # header comment lines
             'inline': {},  # inline comments

easybuild/framework/easyconfig/parser.py

@@ -110,8 +110,6 @@ def __init__(self, filename=None, format_version=None, rawcontent=None,
         else:
             raise EasyBuildError("Neither filename nor rawcontent provided to EasyConfigParser")
 
-        self._formatter.extract_comments(self.rawcontent)
-
     def process(self, filename=None):
         """Create an instance"""
         self._read(filename=filename)