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 2,570
bash 118,863 1,254
osh-native 118,863 417
osh-nosouffle 118,863 399
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 8 4 4 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-nosouffle 8 5 3 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 338 324 14 22 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 1 1 2 2,512 abuild
bash 4 3 1 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 7 3 9 2,512 abuild
osh-nosouffle 10 8 2 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 464 436 29 23 2,512 abuild
dash 9 9 0 2 20,489 configure
bash 18 17 0 4 20,489 configure
osh-native 41 31 10 22 20,489 configure
osh-nosouffle 46 37 9 23 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,185 2,139 46 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 23 0 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 42 41 1 4 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 166 138 28 52 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-nosouffle 169 143 26 52 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 6,385 6,290 93 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 2 1 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 6 1 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-nosouffle 7 6 1 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 324 301 24 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 0 1 2 1,733 functions
bash 3 2 1 3 1,733 functions
osh-native 7 4 2 8 1,733 functions
osh-nosouffle 7 4 3 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 311 289 22 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 4 1 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 7 3 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 21 13 8 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-nosouffle 22 18 4 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 1,032 1,004 27 30 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 0 1 2 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 2 2 0 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-nosouffle 4 1 3 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 118 102 16 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 2 1 2 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 2 3 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-nosouffle 5 3 1 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 128 111 17 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 8 6 2 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 18 13 5 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-nosouffle 19 13 6 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 941 917 24 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 31,535,723 2,698 Build.sh
osh-nosouffle 35,785,377 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,346,197 2,512 abuild
bash 23,586,858 2,512 abuild
osh-native 44,675,907 2,512 abuild
osh-nosouffle 52,236,387 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,490 20,489 configure
bash 166,013,802 20,489 configure
osh-native 220,647,029 20,489 configure
osh-nosouffle 252,557,876 20,489 configure
dash 161,016,284 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,767,942 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 747,412,636 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-nosouffle 836,744,308 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,799,636 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 25,946,888 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-nosouffle 30,224,500 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,799 1,733 functions
bash 15,312,098 1,733 functions
osh-native 24,432,760 1,733 functions
osh-nosouffle 28,822,152 1,733 functions
dash 24,904,718 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,310,064 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 96,131,019 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-nosouffle 112,341,888 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,294,377 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,045,697 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-nosouffle 11,020,610 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 11,850,501 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-nosouffle 13,000,754 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 96,119,079 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-nosouffle 112,224,618 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-36833674
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-b858a07b
osh-native osh-0dad869a
osh-nosouffle osh-nosouffle-064f919a
host label host id
no-host no-host-9c670df1

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-11-23__01-53-01.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-11-23__01-53-01.times.csv