File I/O is incredibly slow in Eclipse debug mode

Question

I've often found the debug mode of Eclipse useful over relying on print statements or logging. However, I've found that the debug mode's performance seems to be particularly sensitive to file I/O. Loading a file can be way slower (taking ~25 times as long), and since my workflow requires loading a rather large file before I get to anything interesting, this is particularly inconvenient for me.

Is there any sensible workaround for this issue? I don't actually need the debugging during the file loading part, so is there perhaps a way to only jump into debug mode at a certain point in the process?

Note that, unlike this question, I do not believe this is a problem with the state of my workspace.

Answer 1

You can hook into a running application with eclipse's remote debuging feature. You have to start your app with some parameters:

java -Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=8001,server=y suspend=y -jar yourapp.jar

Then in your debug configuration choose Remote Java Application using port 8001.

More detailed with pics here