diff -r 031996eb9bb5 CHANGES.txt
--- a/CHANGES.txt	Mon Jun 27 00:33:31 2022 -0400
+++ b/CHANGES.txt	Mon Jun 27 21:41:59 2022 -0400
@@ -172,6 +172,9 @@
   i18n object is now also correctly set for the mail interface:
   previously the 'language' setting in the [mailgw] section seems to
   have been ignored. Thanks to Marcus Priesch for the patch.
+- issue2551212 - speed up wsgi interface by caching the tracker
+  instance. Hidden behind a feature flag. See upgrading.txt for
+  details. (Marcus Priesch with feature flag by John Rouillard)
 
 2021-07-13 2.1.0
 
diff -r 031996eb9bb5 doc/upgrading.txt
--- a/doc/upgrading.txt	Mon Jun 27 00:33:31 2022 -0400
+++ b/doc/upgrading.txt	Mon Jun 27 21:41:59 2022 -0400
@@ -209,6 +209,23 @@
 of ps or shell history. The new password will be encrypted using the
 default encryption method (usually pbkdf2).
 
+Enable performance improvement for wsgi mode (optional)
+-------------------------------------------------------
+
+There is an experimental wsgi performance improvement mode that caches
+the loaded roundup instance. This eliminates disk reads that are
+incurred on each connection. In one report it improves speed by a
+factor of 2 to 3 times. To enable this you should add a feature flag
+to your Roundup wsgi wrapper so it looks like::
+
+   ff = { "cache_tracker": "" }
+   app =  RequestDispatcher(tracker_home, feature_flags=ff)
+
+to enable this mode. Note that this is experimental and was added
+during the 2.0.2 beta period, so it is hidden behind a feature flag.
+If you use this and it works better for you please followup with an
+email on the roundup-users at lists.sourceforge.net.
+
 Migrating from 2.0.0 to 2.1.0
 =============================
 
diff -r 031996eb9bb5 roundup/cgi/wsgi_handler.py
--- a/roundup/cgi/wsgi_handler.py	Mon Jun 27 00:33:31 2022 -0400
+++ b/roundup/cgi/wsgi_handler.py	Mon Jun 27 21:41:59 2022 -0400
@@ -74,17 +74,24 @@
 
 
 class RequestDispatcher(object):
-    def __init__(self, home, debug=False, timing=False, lang=None):
+    def __init__(self, home, debug=False, timing=False, lang=None,
+                 feature_flags=None):
         assert os.path.isdir(home), '%r is not a directory' % (home,)
         self.home = home
         self.debug = debug
         self.timing = timing
+        self.feature_flags= feature_flags or {}
+        self.tracker = None
         if lang:
             self.translator = TranslationService.get_translation(lang,
                 tracker_home=home)
         else:
             self.translator = None
-        self.preload()
+
+        if "cache_tracker" in self.feature_flags:
+            self.tracker = roundup.instance.open(self.home, not self.debug)
+        else:
+            self.preload()
 
     def __call__(self, environ, start_response):
         """Initialize with `apache.Request` object"""
@@ -116,8 +123,8 @@
         else:
             form = BinaryFieldStorage(fp=environ['wsgi.input'], environ=environ)
 
-        with self.get_tracker() as tracker:
-            client = tracker.Client(tracker, request, environ, form,
+        if "cache_tracker" in self.feature_flags:
+            client = self.tracker.Client(self.tracker, request, environ, form,
                                     self.translator)
             try:
                 client.main()
@@ -125,6 +132,16 @@
                 request.start_response([('Content-Type', 'text/html')], 404)
                 request.wfile.write(s2b('Not found: %s' % 
                                         html_escape(client.path)))
+        else:
+            with self.get_tracker() as tracker:
+                client = tracker.Client(tracker, request, environ, form,
+                                        self.translator)
+                try:
+                    client.main()
+                except roundup.cgi.client.NotFound:
+                    request.start_response([('Content-Type', 'text/html')], 404)
+                    request.wfile.write(s2b('Not found: %s' % 
+                                            html_escape(client.path)))
 
         # all body data has been written using wfile
         return []
diff -r 031996eb9bb5 test/test_liveserver.py
--- a/test/test_liveserver.py	Mon Jun 27 00:33:31 2022 -0400
+++ b/test/test_liveserver.py	Mon Jun 27 21:41:59 2022 -0400
@@ -104,12 +104,17 @@
 
     def create_app(self):
         '''The wsgi app to start'''
+
+        # define feature flags dict
+        #ff = {"cache_tracker": ""}  # enables caching of tracker on init
+        ff = {}
+
         if _py3:
-            return validator(RequestDispatcher(self.dirname))
+            return validator(RequestDispatcher(self.dirname, feature_flags=ff))
         else:
             # wsgiref/validator.py InputWrapper::readline is broke and
             # doesn't support the max bytes to read argument.
-            return RequestDispatcher(self.dirname)
+            return RequestDispatcher(self.dirname, feature_flags=ff)
 
 
     def test_start_page(self):