OSH Parser Performance

We time $sh -n $file for various files under various shells, and repeat then run under cachegrind for stable metrics.

Source code: oils/benchmarks/osh-parser.sh

Raw files

Summary

Instructions Per Line (via cachegrind)

Lower numbers are generally better, but each shell recognizes a different language, and OSH uses a more thorough parsing algorithm. In thousands of "I refs".

shell label total lines thousand irefs per line
bash 118,863 7.3
dash 111,674 2.4
osh-native 118,863 11.0
osh-nosouffle 118,863 12.5

(zsh isn't measured because zsh -n unexpectedly forks.)

Average Parsing Rate, Measured on Two Machines (lines/ms)

Shell startup time is included in the elapsed time measurements, but long files are chosen to minimize its effect.

shell label total lines host no-host
dash 111,674 2,574
bash 118,863 1,245
osh-native 118,863 463
osh-nosouffle 118,863 434
osh-cpython 118,863 10

Per-File Measurements

Time and Memory

shell label elapsed ms user ms sys ms max rss MB num lines filename
dash 2 2 0 2 2,698 Build.sh
bash 3 3 0 3 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 7 4 3 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-nosouffle 8 6 2 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 329 308 21 22 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 1 1 2 2,512 abuild
bash 4 2 2 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 7 2 9 2,512 abuild
osh-nosouffle 10 7 3 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 452 426 26 22 2,512 abuild
dash 9 9 0 2 20,489 configure
bash 17 16 1 4 20,489 configure
osh-native 39 32 7 22 20,489 configure
osh-nosouffle 43 31 11 23 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,146 2,099 46 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 21 2 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 44 42 2 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 145 124 21 52 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-nosouffle 152 123 29 52 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 6,348 6,270 77 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 2 1 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 6 2 4 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-nosouffle 7 3 4 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 325 302 23 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 1 2 1,733 functions
bash 3 1 1 3 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 5 1 8 1,733 functions
osh-nosouffle 7 6 1 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 311 293 18 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 3 2 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 9 0 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 19 11 8 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-nosouffle 21 14 8 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 1,041 1,008 33 30 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 1 0 2 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 2 1 1 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-nosouffle 4 2 2 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 116 98 18 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 1 0 2 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 2 1 1 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 3 2 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-nosouffle 4 2 3 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 123 102 21 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 8 7 1 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 16 13 3 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-nosouffle 18 14 4 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 937 906 29 28 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Instruction Counts

shell label irefs num lines filename
dash 6,684,258 2,698 Build.sh
bash 19,403,577 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 31,532,608 2,698 Build.sh
osh-nosouffle 35,781,894 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,346,197 2,512 abuild
bash 23,586,858 2,512 abuild
osh-native 44,672,185 2,512 abuild
osh-nosouffle 52,232,556 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,490 20,489 configure
bash 166,013,802 20,489 configure
osh-native 220,622,879 20,489 configure
osh-nosouffle 252,531,134 20,489 configure
dash 161,016,284 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,767,942 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 747,299,987 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-nosouffle 836,628,943 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,799,636 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 26,012,087 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-nosouffle 30,297,228 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,799 1,733 functions
bash 15,312,098 1,733 functions
osh-native 24,429,958 1,733 functions
osh-nosouffle 28,819,291 1,733 functions
dash 24,904,718 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,310,064 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 96,119,796 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-nosouffle 112,329,571 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,294,377 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,044,629 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-nosouffle 11,019,259 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 11,082,677 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 4,585,030 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 11,850,047 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-nosouffle 12,999,930 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 16,659,503 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 73,195,614 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 96,121,564 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-nosouffle 112,227,288 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-36833674
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-4f715338
osh-native osh-7bdffb45
osh-nosouffle osh-nosouffle-edbcfeb4
host label host id
no-host no-host-9c670df1

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-11-14__21-21-14.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-11-14__21-21-14.times.csv