Post-command hooks are slow to run for commands invoked using `M-x ...`. I'm using Emacs 26.3 (which produced this bug report), but I've checked with 27.2.2 and I get the same behaviour. Here's a startup file that can be used to show this (also at https://github.com/simon-katz/demo-post-command-hook-slow-with-m-x-commands.el/blob/8e7b96fc322f6372fb1531f04ab6008d59ab9b9e/demo-post-command-hook-slow-with-m-x-commands.el#L1 ). ;;; demo-post-command-hook-slow-with-m-x-commands.el --- Demo that post-sommand hooks are slow with M-x commands -*- lexical-binding: t; -*- ;; This demonstrates an issue with `(add-hook 'post-command-hook ...)`. ;; To reproduce the problem: ;; - Run `emacs -q -l demo-post-command-hook-slow-with-m-x-commands.el` (that's ;; this file). ;; - Enter `M-x next-line`. ;; - Observe that the message displayed by the `say-something` function ;; takes a while to appear. ;; - Contrast with hitting the down-arrow key, when the message appears ;; immediately. ;;; Code: (require 'package) (setq debug-on-error t no-byte-compile t package-archives '(("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/") ("gnu" . "https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/")) package-user-dir (expand-file-name (make-temp-name "flycheck-tmp-elpa") user-emacs-directory) custom-file (expand-file-name "custom.el" package-user-dir)) (defun say-something () (let ((inhibit-message t)) (message "With `M-x next-line` (for example), this message is slow to appear"))) (add-hook 'post-command-hook 'say-something) (display-buffer "*Messages*") (provide 'demo-post-command-hook-slow-with-m-x-commands) ;;; demo-post-command-hook-slow-with-m-x-commands.el ends here In GNU Emacs 26.3 (build 1, x86_64-apple-darwin18.2.0, NS appkit-1671.20 Version 10.14.3 (Build 18D109)) of 2019-09-02 built on builder10-14.porkrind.org Windowing system distributor 'Apple', version 10.3.1894 Recent messages: For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a. With ‘M-x next-line‘ (for example), this message is slow to appear [13 times] You can run the command ‘next-line’ with C-n With ‘M-x next-line‘ (for example), this message is slow to appear [10 times] Quit With ‘M-x next-line‘ (for example), this message is slow to appear [7 times] Making completion list... With ‘M-x next-line‘ (for example), this message is slow to appear [6 times] Configured using: 'configure --with-ns '--enable-locallisppath=/Library/Application Support/Emacs/${version}/site-lisp:/Library/Application Support/Emacs/site-lisp' --with-modules' Configured features: NOTIFY ACL GNUTLS LIBXML2 ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS NS MODULES THREADS Important settings: value of $LANG: en_GB.UTF-8 locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix Major mode: Fundamental Minor modes in effect: tooltip-mode: t global-eldoc-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t tool-bar-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t buffer-read-only: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Load-path shadows: None found. Features: (shadow sort map mail-extr emacsbug message rmc puny dired dired-loaddefs format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec epa derived epg gnus-util rmail rmail-loaddefs mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils demo-post-command-hook-slow-with-m-x-commands package easymenu epg-config url-handlers url-parse auth-source cl-seq eieio eieio-core cl-macs eieio-loaddefs password-cache url-vars seq byte-opt gv bytecomp byte-compile cconv cl-loaddefs cl-lib elec-pair time-date tooltip eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel term/ns-win ns-win ucs-normalize mule-util term/common-win tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list replace newcomment text-mode elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow isearch timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core term/tty-colors frame cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese composite charscript charprop case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev obarray minibuffer cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote threads kqueue cocoa ns multi-tty make-network-process emacs) Memory information: ((conses 16 213714 7973) (symbols 48 21049 1) (miscs 40 83 191) (strings 32 31839 1672) (string-bytes 1 863206) (vectors 16 36747) (vector-slots 8 745240 8812) (floats 8 57 65) (intervals 56 214 0) (buffers 992 13))