Reduce overhead of loading Plots.jl packages on jupyter using PackageCompiler.jl ( tested on Julia v1.5.0 )

Dockerfile

FROM julia:1.5.1

RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get install -y \
    build-essential \
    cmake \
    python3 \
    python3-dev \
    python3-distutils \
    curl \
    ca-certificates \
    git \
    libgconf-2-4 \
    xvfb \
    libgtk-3-0 \
    dvipng \
    texlive-latex-recommended  \
    zip \
    libxt6 libxrender1 libxext6 libgl1-mesa-glx libqt5widgets5 # GR && \
    apt-get clean && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* # clean up


RUN curl -kL https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python3 && \
    pip3 install \
    jupyter \
    jupyterlab \
    jupytext \
    ipywidgets \
    jupyter-contrib-nbextensions \
    jupyter-nbextensions-configurator \
    jupyterlab_code_formatter autopep8 black

# suppress warning for related to GR backend
ENV GKSwstype=100

RUN julia -e 'ENV["PYTHON"]=Sys.which("python3"); \
              ENV["JUPYTER"]=Sys.which("jupyter"); \
              using Pkg; \
              Pkg.add(["IJulia", "Plots", "PackageCompiler"]); \
              # Install test dependencies for IJulia \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="JSON", version="0.21.0")); \
              # Install test dependencies for Plots \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="Plots", version="1.6.0")); \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="ImageMagick", version="1.1.6")); \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="VisualRegressionTests", version="1.0.0")); \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="FileIO", version="1.4.2")); \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="StableRNGs", version="0.1.1")); \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="Gtk", version="1.1.4")); \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="GeometryTypes", version="0.8.3")); \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="GeometryBasics", version="0.2.15")); \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="HDF5", version="0.13.5")); \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="PGFPlotsX", version="1.2.9")); \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="StaticArrays", version="0.12.4")); \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="OffsetArrays", version="1.1.3")); \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="UnicodePlots", version="1.1.0")); \
              Pkg.add(PackageSpec(name="Distributions", version="0.23.10")); \
              Pkg.pin([\
                  "Plots", "ImageMagick", "VisualRegressionTests", "FileIO", \
                  "StableRNGs", "Gtk", "GeometryTypes", "GeometryBasics", \
                  "HDF5", "PGFPlotsX", "StaticArrays", "OffsetArrays", \
                  "UnicodePlots", "Distributions" \
              ])'
# show current state
RUN julia -e "using Pkg; Pkg.status()"
# generate precompile_statements_file
RUN xvfb-run julia \
             --trace-compile=ijuliacompile.jl \
             -e 'ENV["CI"]="true"; using Plots, IJulia; \
                include(joinpath(pkgdir(IJulia), "test", "runtests.jl")); \
                try include(joinpath(pkgdir(Plots), "test", "runtests.jl")) catch end'

# update sysimage
RUN julia -e 'using PackageCompiler; \
              create_sysimage(\
                  [:IJulia, :Plots], \
                  precompile_statements_file="ijuliacompile.jl", \
                  replace_default=true\
              )'

RUN julia -e 'using Pkg; Pkg.precompile(); using InteractiveUtils; versioninfo()'

CMD ["julia"]

Usage

• Step0: Install Docker
• Step1: Donwload the Dockerfile above
• Step2: Run the following command

$ docker build -t plotfast -f Dockerfile .
$ docker run --rm -v $PWD:/work -w /work -p 8888:8888 plotfast jupyter notebook --notebook-dir /work --ip=0.0.0.0 --allow-root
[I 10:24:54.590 NotebookApp] Writing notebook server cookie secret to /root/.local/share/jupyter/runtime/notebook_cookie_secret
[I 10:24:54.803 NotebookApp] JupyterLab extension loaded from /usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/jupyterlab
[I 10:24:54.803 NotebookApp] JupyterLab application directory is /usr/local/share/jupyter/lab
[I 10:24:54.839 NotebookApp] [Jupytext Server Extension] Deriving a JupytextContentsManager from LargeFileManager
[I 10:24:54.841 NotebookApp] Serving notebooks from local directory: /work
[I 10:24:54.841 NotebookApp] Jupyter Notebook 6.1.1 is running at:
[I 10:24:54.841 NotebookApp] http://bdc90935cc6f:8888/?token=e48611799f8b841f074ae0e1ded05cc27cd345247a8d3262
[I 10:24:54.841 NotebookApp]  or http://127.0.0.1:8888/?token=e48611799f8b841f074ae0e1ded05cc27cd345247a8d3262
[I 10:24:54.841 NotebookApp] Use Control-C to stop this server and shut down all kernels (twice to skip confirmation).
[W 10:24:54.844 NotebookApp] No web browser found: could not locate runnable browser.
[C 10:24:54.844 NotebookApp]

    To access the notebook, open this file in a browser:
        file:///root/.local/share/jupyter/runtime/nbserver-1-open.html
    Or copy and paste one of these URLs:
        http://bdc90935cc6f:8888/?token=xxxxxxxxxx
     or http://127.0.0.1:8888/?token=xxxxxxxxxx

• Step3: Open http://127.0.0.1:8888/?token=xxxxxxxxxx on your web browser (where token xxxxxxxxxx is depends on your environment)

Result

For those who like to run locally with julia --trace-compile=traced.jl

ENV["GKSwstype"]=100
ENV["PYTHON"]=Sys.which("python3"); 
ENV["JUPYTER"]=Sys.which("jupyter"); 

using Pkg
Pkg.add(["IJulia", "PackageCompiler"]);
        # Install test dependencies for IJulia 
Pkg.add([PackageSpec(name="JSON", version="0.21.0"),
        # Install test dependencies for Plots v1.6.0
        PackageSpec(name="Plots", version="1.6.0"),
        PackageSpec(name="ImageMagick", version="1.1.6"),
        PackageSpec(name="VisualRegressionTests", version="1.0.0"),
        PackageSpec(name="FileIO", version="1.4.2"),
        PackageSpec(name="StableRNGs", version="0.1.1"),
        PackageSpec(name="Gtk", version="1.1.4"),
        PackageSpec(name="GeometryTypes", version="0.8.3"),
        PackageSpec(name="GeometryBasics", version="0.2.15"),
        PackageSpec(name="HDF5", version="0.13.5"),
        PackageSpec(name="PGFPlotsX", version="1.2.9"),
        PackageSpec(name="StaticArrays", version="0.12.4"),
        PackageSpec(name="OffsetArrays", version="1.1.3"),
        PackageSpec(name="UnicodePlots", version="1.1.0"),
        PackageSpec(name="Distributions", version="0.23.10"),
])

using Plots
include(joinpath(pkgdir(Plots), "test", "runtests.jl"))

Or download file from this gist and save it as traced.jl

After that, simply run:

using PackageCompiler; create_sysimage([:Plots, :Revise, :OhMyREPL], precompile_statements_file="traced.jl", sysimage_path="plots")