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 2,573
bash 118,863 1,274
osh-native 118,863 447
osh-nosouffle 118,863 419
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 2 1 3 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 8 7 1 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-nosouffle 8 6 2 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 329 315 14 21 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 1 1 2 2,512 abuild
bash 4 2 1 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 5 4 9 2,512 abuild
osh-nosouffle 10 6 4 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 460 436 23 22 2,512 abuild
dash 9 9 0 2 20,489 configure
bash 17 16 1 4 20,489 configure
osh-native 40 34 6 22 20,489 configure
osh-nosouffle 43 30 13 23 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,177 2,129 48 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 23 0 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 42 41 1 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 150 129 20 52 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-nosouffle 158 135 23 52 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 6,399 6,328 71 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 3 0 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 6 4 2 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-nosouffle 7 4 3 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 323 302 21 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 0 2 1,733 functions
bash 3 2 1 3 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 3 4 9 1,733 functions
osh-nosouffle 7 3 4 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 303 279 25 21 1,733 functions
dash 5 4 1 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 9 0 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 21 15 5 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-nosouffle 23 18 5 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 1,027 999 29 30 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 0 1 2 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 2 1 1 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 3 1 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-nosouffle 4 1 3 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 114 94 20 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 2 2 0 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 3 1 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-nosouffle 4 2 3 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 121 102 19 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 8 6 2 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 18 14 4 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-nosouffle 19 12 7 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 940 919 22 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 31,532,068 2,698 Build.sh
osh-nosouffle 35,781,304 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,346,197 2,512 abuild
bash 23,586,858 2,512 abuild
osh-native 44,672,195 2,512 abuild
osh-nosouffle 52,232,548 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,490 20,489 configure
bash 166,013,802 20,489 configure
osh-native 220,622,889 20,489 configure
osh-nosouffle 252,531,153 20,489 configure
dash 161,016,284 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,767,942 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 747,300,024 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-nosouffle 836,628,962 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,799,636 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 25,939,776 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-nosouffle 30,217,058 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,799 1,733 functions
bash 15,312,098 1,733 functions
osh-native 24,429,968 1,733 functions
osh-nosouffle 28,819,310 1,733 functions
dash 24,904,718 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,310,064 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 96,119,806 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-nosouffle 112,329,590 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,294,377 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,044,639 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-nosouffle 11,019,278 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 11,850,057 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-nosouffle 12,999,949 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 96,107,074 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-nosouffle 112,211,399 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-36833674
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-715fab45
osh-native osh-3663401d
osh-nosouffle osh-nosouffle-4749f5b1
host label host id
no-host no-host-9c670df1

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-11-15__01-41-17.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-11-15__01-41-17.times.csv