From Fedora Project Wiki
Some speed optimization ideas for yum
- use Cython to compile one or more of the .py files to .c code and compile them into DSOs
- use PyPy; would require building out a full PyPy stack: an alternative implementation of Python. Last time I looked a the generated .c code, I wasn't comfortable debugging the result (I didn't feel that debugging a crash in the result would be feasible at 3am)
- use Unladen Swallow for Python 2: would require porting the US 2.6 stack to 2.7, and a separate Python stack
- use Unladen Swallow for Python 3: wait until it gets merged (in Python 3.3); port yum to python 3
Using Cython seems to be the least invasive approach.
I've looked at the generated code and it seems debuggable; I'd be able to debug issues arising.