Yes, there can be a lot of overhead. I've logged into busy systems that have so many databases and tables it takes 30-60s to hash--meanwhile you're twiddling your thumbs. I usually just ctrl-C and add the -A and restart. I know and use \# often--I frequently start with -A, then after my initial stuff let \# run while I do something else if I need it on a system like this. It might also be nice to have a way to limit the hashing to within a specific DB. Another possibility would be to do the hashing in the background--start with the selected db, or maybe even be smart enough to hash on-demand, tied to the tab-completion--eg do databases and the tables in the selected db, and as they are completed hash the next relevent level, add some locality of namespace to determine the order to hash ahead of time as it goes.
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