Android compilation time with jack is extremely slow

Question

I recently upgraded to Java 8 and my computer is subsequently using jack to compile my android builds. Since I've switched, building the app on my device is taking an enormous amount of time; usually between 3-5 minutes. I changed the server timeout value in my .jack file to 1800 seconds and it still seems that the server timeout is set to 60 seconds. Has anybody had a similar problem?

Here is what my .jack file looks like:

SERVER_TIMEOUT=1800

EDIT: I recently upgraded my computer from a mid 2010 mac desktop computer to a late 2015 model. Although jack is still not compiling as quickly as I'd like, it has improved immensely. Where it used to take around 5 minutes to compile each time, now it only takes a little over a minute to compile. So for those facing a similar problem, perhaps this may give some extra insight in to solving your problem.

Shearer

I've noticed this as well. Just to narrow it down a bit, it's enabling Jack that causes the slowness, not upgrading sourceCompatibility/targetCompatibility to JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8 – Lingerfelt

I'm starting to wonder if it was just my imagination due to the fact that Instant Run doesn't work with jack yet. – Lingerfelt

What are your JVM heap options for android studio and gradle ? – Jadwigajae

Answer 1

I was facing the same problem, and since I want to use java8 I decided to use retrolambda instead of jack compiler as it didn't slow down the build as the jack compiler does.

Guise