3 files changed, 24 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
index 8c27289d5e0..3e686f98db3 100644
--- a/etc/NEWS
+++ b/etc/NEWS
@@ -38,6 +38,12 @@ fontsets if the default font supports these characters.  Set this
 variable to nil to disable the new behavior and get back the old
 behavior.
 
+---
+** New variable 'inhibit-compacting-font-caches'.
+Set this variable to a non-nil value to speed up display of characters
+using large fonts, at the price of a larger memory footprint of the
+Emacs session.
+
 
 * Installation Changes in Emacs 25.1
 
diff --git a/src/alloc.c b/src/alloc.c
index f33d93f83b4..c7f58a8adc4 100644
--- a/src/alloc.c
+++ b/src/alloc.c
@@ -5584,7 +5584,11 @@ compact_font_caches (void)
   for (t = terminal_list; t; t = t->next_terminal)
     {
       Lisp_Object cache = TERMINAL_FONT_CACHE (t);
-      if (CONSP (cache))
+      /* Inhibit compacting the caches if the user so wishes.  Some of
+         the users don't mind a larger memory footprint, but do mind
+         slower redisplay.  */
+      if (!inhibit_compacting_font_caches
+          && CONSP (cache))
         {
           Lisp_Object entry;
 
diff --git a/src/font.c b/src/font.c
index 2519599bc63..b85956f225c 100644
--- a/src/font.c
+++ b/src/font.c
@@ -5430,6 +5430,19 @@ Set it to nil to enable logging.  If the environment variable
 EMACS_FONT_LOG is set at startup, it defaults to nil.  */);
   Vfont_log = Qnil;
 
+  DEFVAR_BOOL ("inhibit-compacting-font-caches", inhibit_compacting_font_caches,
+               doc: /*
+If non-nil, don't compact font caches during GC.
+Some large fonts cause lots of consing and trigger GC.  If they
+are removed from the font caches, they will need to be opened
+again during redisplay, which slows down redisplay.  If you
+see font-related delays in displaying some special characters,
+and cannot switch to a smaller font for those characters, set
+this variable non-nil.
+Disabling compaction of font caches might enlarge the Emacs memory
+footprint in sessions that use lots of different fonts.  */);
+  inhibit_compacting_font_caches = 0;
+
 #ifdef HAVE_WINDOW_SYSTEM
 #ifdef HAVE_FREETYPE
   syms_of_ftfont ();