Fix slow server startup of very big content trees

As in content trees with 10 thousand of directories and more.

A benchmark with the bottle neck code in `helpers.ExtractAndGroupRootPaths`:

```
                            │ cmp20251125.bench │ fix-extractandgrouproot-14211.bench │
                            │      sec/op       │    sec/op     vs base               │
ExtractAndGroupRootPaths-10     1282818.8µ ± 8%   493.8µ ± 38%  -99.96% (p=0.002 n=6)

                            │ cmp20251125.bench │ fix-extractandgrouproot-14211.bench │
                            │       B/op        │     B/op      vs base               │
ExtractAndGroupRootPaths-10       3343.8Ki ± 0%   146.3Ki ± 0%  -95.63% (p=0.002 n=6)

                            │ cmp20251125.bench │ fix-extractandgrouproot-14211.bench │
                            │     allocs/op     │  allocs/op    vs base               │
ExtractAndGroupRootPaths-10        20.043k ± 0%    2.979k ± 0%  -85.14% (p=0.002 n=6)
```

For test project that started this (a 60k directory conent tree), the server startup with no rendering, wen from 1.5 minutes to less than 4 seconds:

```
hugop server --renderSegments none                        main ✚ ✖ ✱ ◼
Watching for changes in /Users/bep/dev/sites/hugotestsites/60k/content/{section0,section1,section10,section100,section101,section102,section103,section104,section105,section106,...}
Watching for changes in /Users/bep/dev/sites/hugotestsites/60k/layouts/_default
Watching for config changes in /Users/bep/dev/sites/hugotestsites/60k/config.toml
Start building sites …
hugo v0.153.0-DEV-7e27c303904ed8b221d6a5a4fc9a764bb7b2935b darwin/arm64 BuildDate=2025-11-25T15:02:58Z

                  │ EN
──────────────────┼────
 Pages            │  0
 Paginator pages  │  0
 Non-page files   │  0
 Static files     │  0
 Processed images │  0
 Aliases          │  0
 Cleaned          │  0

Built in 3884 ms
Environment: "development"
Serving pages from disk
Running in Fast Render Mode. For full rebuilds on change: hugo server --disableFastRender
Web Server is available at //localhost:1313/ (bind address 127.0.0.1)
Press Ctrl+C to stop
```

Note that the output may be a little different and a little more verbose than before., but the information is correct and this implementation is significantly faster and simpler.

Fixes #14211

Author: bep

commands/commandeer.go

@@ -401,9 +401,7 @@ func (r *rootCommand) Run(ctx context.Context, cd *simplecobra.Commandeer, args
 
 	watchGroups := helpers.ExtractAndGroupRootPaths(watchDirs)
 
-	for _, group := range watchGroups {
-		r.Printf("Watching for changes in %s\n", group)
-	}
+	r.Printf("Watching for changes in %s\n", strings.Join(watchGroups, ", "))
 	watcher, err := b.newWatcher(r.poll, watchDirs...)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err

commands/server.go

@@ -492,9 +492,7 @@ func (c *serverCommand) Run(ctx context.Context, cd *simplecobra.Commandeer, arg
 
 		watchGroups := helpers.ExtractAndGroupRootPaths(watchDirs)
 
-		for _, group := range watchGroups {
-			c.r.Printf("Watching for changes in %s\n", group)
-		}
+		c.r.Printf("Watching for changes in %s\n", strings.Join(watchGroups, ", "))
 		watcher, err := c.newWatcher(c.r.poll, watchDirs...)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err

helpers/path.go

@@ -21,11 +21,12 @@ import (
 	"path"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"regexp"
+	"slices"
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
 
+	"github.com/gohugoio/go-radix"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/common/herrors"
-	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/common/hstrings"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/common/text"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/htesting"
 
@@ -129,113 +130,63 @@ func (n NamedSlice) String() string {
 	return fmt.Sprintf("%s%s{%s}", n.Name, FilePathSeparator, strings.Join(n.Slice, ","))
 }
 
-func ExtractAndGroupRootPaths(paths []string) []NamedSlice {
-	if len(paths) == 0 {
+// ExtractAndGroupRootPaths extracts and groups root paths from the supplied list of paths.
+// Note that the in slice will be sorted in place.
+func ExtractAndGroupRootPaths(in []string) []string {
+	if len(in) == 0 {
 		return nil
 	}
-
-	pathsCopy := make([]string, len(paths))
-	hadSlashPrefix := strings.HasPrefix(paths[0], FilePathSeparator)
-
-	for i, p := range paths {
-		pathsCopy[i] = strings.Trim(filepath.ToSlash(p), "/")
-	}
-
-	sort.Strings(pathsCopy)
-
-	pathsParts := make([][]string, len(pathsCopy))
-
-	for i, p := range pathsCopy {
-		pathsParts[i] = strings.Split(p, "/")
-	}
-
-	var groups [][]string
-
-	for i, p1 := range pathsParts {
-		c1 := -1
-
-		for j, p2 := range pathsParts {
-			if i == j {
-				continue
+	const maxGroups = 5
+	sort.Strings(in)
+	var groups []string
+	tree := radix.New[[]string]()
+
+LOOP:
+	for _, s := range in {
+		s = filepath.ToSlash(s)
+		if ss, g, found := tree.LongestPrefix(s); found {
+			if len(g) > maxGroups {
+				continue LOOP
 			}
-
-			c2 := -1
-
-			for i, v := range p1 {
-				if i >= len(p2) {
-					break
-				}
-				if v != p2[i] {
-					break
-				}
-
-				c2 = i
-			}
-
-			if c1 == -1 || (c2 != -1 && c2 < c1) {
-				c1 = c2
+			parts := strings.Split(strings.TrimPrefix(strings.TrimPrefix(s, ss), "/"), "/")
+			if len(parts) > 0 && parts[0] != "" && !slices.Contains(g, parts[0]) {
+				g = append(g, parts[0])
+				tree.Insert(ss, g)
 			}
-		}
 
-		if c1 != -1 {
-			groups = append(groups, p1[:c1+1])
 		} else {
-			groups = append(groups, p1)
+			tree.Insert(s, []string{})
 		}
 	}
 
-	groupsStr := make([]string, len(groups))
-	for i, g := range groups {
-		groupsStr[i] = strings.Join(g, "/")
-	}
-
-	groupsStr = hstrings.UniqueStringsSorted(groupsStr)
-
-	var result []NamedSlice
-
-	for _, g := range groupsStr {
-		name := filepath.FromSlash(g)
-		if hadSlashPrefix {
-			name = FilePathSeparator + name
+	var collect radix.WalkFn[[]string] = func(s string, g []string) (radix.WalkFlag, []string, error) {
+		if len(g) == 0 {
+			groups = append(groups, s)
+			return radix.WalkContinue, nil, nil
 		}
-		ns := NamedSlice{Name: name}
-		for _, p := range pathsCopy {
-			if !strings.HasPrefix(p, g) {
-				continue
-			}
-
-			p = strings.TrimPrefix(p, g)
-			if p != "" {
-				ns.Slice = append(ns.Slice, p)
-			}
+		if len(g) == 1 {
+			groups = append(groups, path.Join(s, g[0]))
+			return radix.WalkContinue, nil, nil
 		}
-
-		ns.Slice = hstrings.UniqueStrings(ExtractRootPaths(ns.Slice))
-
-		result = append(result, ns)
+		var sb strings.Builder
+		sb.WriteString(s)
+		// This is used to print "Watching for changes in /Users/bep/dev/sites/hugotestsites/60k/content/{section0,section1,section10..."
+		// Having too many groups here is not helpful.
+		if len(g) > maxGroups {
+			// This will modify the slice in the tree, but that is OK since we are done with it.
+			g = g[:maxGroups]
+			g = append(g, "...")
+		}
+		sb.WriteString("/{")
+		sb.WriteString(strings.Join(g, ","))
+		sb.WriteString("}")
+		groups = append(groups, sb.String())
+		return radix.WalkContinue, nil, nil
 	}
 
-	return result
-}
+	tree.Walk(collect)
 
-// ExtractRootPaths extracts the root paths from the supplied list of paths.
-// The resulting root path will not contain any file separators, but there
-// may be duplicates.
-// So "/content/section/" becomes "content"
-func ExtractRootPaths(paths []string) []string {
-	r := make([]string, len(paths))
-	for i, p := range paths {
-		root := filepath.ToSlash(p)
-		sections := strings.SplitSeq(root, "/")
-		for section := range sections {
-			if section != "" {
-				root = section
-				break
-			}
-		}
-		r[i] = root
-	}
-	return r
+	return groups
 }
 
 // FindCWD returns the current working directory from where the Hugo

helpers/path_test.go

@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
-	"reflect"
 	"runtime"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
@@ -355,36 +354,24 @@ func TestExtractAndGroupRootPaths(t *testing.T) {
 		filepath.FromSlash("/c/d/e"),
 	}
 
-	inCopy := make([]string, len(in))
-	copy(inCopy, in)
-
 	result := helpers.ExtractAndGroupRootPaths(in)
 
 	c := qt.New(t)
-	c.Assert(fmt.Sprint(result), qt.Equals, filepath.FromSlash("[/a/b/{c,e} /c/d/e]"))
-
-	// Make sure the original is preserved
-	c.Assert(in, qt.DeepEquals, inCopy)
+	c.Assert(result, qt.DeepEquals, []string{"/a/b/{c,e}", "/c/d/e"})
 }
 
-func TestExtractRootPaths(t *testing.T) {
-	tests := []struct {
-		input    []string
-		expected []string
-	}{{
-		[]string{
-			filepath.FromSlash("a/b"), filepath.FromSlash("a/b/c/"), "b",
-			filepath.FromSlash("/c/d"), filepath.FromSlash("d/"), filepath.FromSlash("//e//"),
-		},
-		[]string{"a", "a", "b", "c", "d", "e"},
-	}}
-
-	for _, test := range tests {
-		output := helpers.ExtractRootPaths(test.input)
-		if !reflect.DeepEqual(output, test.expected) {
-			t.Errorf("Expected %#v, got %#v\n", test.expected, output)
+func BenchmarkExtractAndGroupRootPaths(b *testing.B) {
+	in := []string{}
+	for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
+		for j := 0; j < 1000; j++ {
+			in = append(in, fmt.Sprintf("/a/b/c/s%d/p%d", i, j))
 		}
 	}
+
+	b.ResetTimer()
+	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+		helpers.ExtractAndGroupRootPaths(in)
+	}
 }
 
 func TestFindCWD(t *testing.T) {