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 11.1
osh-nosouffle 118,863 12.8

(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 3,129
bash 118,863 1,374
osh-native 118,863 423
osh-nosouffle 118,863 396
osh-cpython 118,863 11

Per-File Measurements

Time and Memory

shell label elapsed ms user ms sys ms max rss MB num lines filename
dash 1 1 0 2 2,698 Build.sh
bash 3 2 1 3 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 7 5 2 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-nosouffle 8 7 1 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 291 280 10 22 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 1 1 2 2,512 abuild
bash 4 4 0 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 7 2 9 2,512 abuild
osh-nosouffle 10 8 2 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 408 396 11 22 2,512 abuild
dash 7 7 0 2 20,489 configure
bash 16 16 0 4 20,489 configure
osh-native 42 36 6 22 20,489 configure
osh-nosouffle 47 39 8 23 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 1,928 1,896 32 44 20,489 configure
dash 18 18 0 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 38 36 2 4 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 165 148 17 52 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-nosouffle 171 146 25 52 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 5,662 5,602 59 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 3 0 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 3 3 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-nosouffle 7 6 1 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 291 275 17 22 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 0 1 2 1,733 functions
bash 3 2 1 3 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 3 3 8 1,733 functions
osh-nosouffle 7 5 1 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 279 261 18 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 4 0 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 8 1 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 20 14 6 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-nosouffle 22 19 3 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 918 897 21 30 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 1 0 2 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 2 2 0 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 3 4 0 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-nosouffle 4 2 2 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 106 95 11 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 0 1 2 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 2 1 1 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-nosouffle 4 3 1 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 114 103 11 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 7 5 2 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 17 14 3 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-nosouffle 21 20 1 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 846 826 19 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 31,600,631 2,698 Build.sh
osh-nosouffle 35,848,882 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,346,197 2,512 abuild
bash 23,586,858 2,512 abuild
osh-native 44,723,217 2,512 abuild
osh-nosouffle 52,280,000 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,490 20,489 configure
bash 166,013,802 20,489 configure
osh-native 231,143,475 20,489 configure
osh-nosouffle 263,062,214 20,489 configure
dash 161,016,284 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,767,942 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 748,386,541 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-nosouffle 862,831,742 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,799,636 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 25,987,261 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-nosouffle 30,265,463 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,799 1,733 functions
bash 15,312,098 1,733 functions
osh-native 24,471,103 1,733 functions
osh-nosouffle 28,859,885 1,733 functions
dash 24,904,718 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,310,064 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 96,274,642 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-nosouffle 112,485,173 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,294,377 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,065,133 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-nosouffle 11,039,966 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 11,869,532 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-nosouffle 13,019,928 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 96,185,728 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-nosouffle 112,289,649 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-36833674
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-6094f73d
osh-native osh-800d7441
osh-nosouffle osh-nosouffle-94df7414
host label host id
no-host no-host-bba74091

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-12-23__04-32-03.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-12-23__04-32-03.times.csv