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 2,588
bash 118,863 1,285
osh-native 118,863 496
osh-nosouffle 118,863 469
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 1 1 2 2,698 Build.sh
bash 3 2 1 3 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 7 5 2 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-nosouffle 7 6 1 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 320 301 20 21 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 1 1 1 2,512 abuild
bash 3 2 1 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 8 1 9 2,512 abuild
osh-nosouffle 9 6 3 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 444 422 23 22 2,512 abuild
dash 9 7 2 2 20,489 configure
bash 17 16 1 4 20,489 configure
osh-native 38 27 11 23 20,489 configure
osh-nosouffle 41 30 11 23 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,105 2,074 30 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 21 2 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 42 42 0 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 131 110 21 52 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-nosouffle 137 115 22 52 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 6,134 6,071 64 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 3 0 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 6 5 1 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-nosouffle 7 4 2 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 314 292 23 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 0 2 1,733 functions
bash 3 1 1 3 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 2 4 8 1,733 functions
osh-nosouffle 6 6 0 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 299 283 16 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 4 0 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 8 1 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 19 11 7 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-nosouffle 20 14 6 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 1,002 975 27 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 4 0 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-nosouffle 4 2 2 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 111 97 14 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 1 1 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 2 1 1 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 0 4 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-nosouffle 4 2 2 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 119 92 27 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 8 6 1 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 16 11 5 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-nosouffle 18 13 5 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 902 875 26 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 31,600,670 2,698 Build.sh
osh-nosouffle 35,848,953 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,346,197 2,512 abuild
bash 23,586,858 2,512 abuild
osh-native 44,723,246 2,512 abuild
osh-nosouffle 52,280,088 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,490 20,489 configure
bash 166,013,802 20,489 configure
osh-native 231,143,505 20,489 configure
osh-nosouffle 263,062,234 20,489 configure
dash 161,016,284 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,767,942 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 748,386,583 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-nosouffle 862,831,852 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,799,636 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 25,987,272 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-nosouffle 30,265,542 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,799 1,733 functions
bash 15,312,098 1,733 functions
osh-native 24,471,133 1,733 functions
osh-nosouffle 28,860,624 1,733 functions
dash 24,904,718 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,310,064 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 96,274,672 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-nosouffle 112,485,216 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,294,377 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,065,146 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-nosouffle 11,040,009 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 11,869,569 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-nosouffle 13,019,989 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 96,185,766 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-nosouffle 112,289,651 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-36833674
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-541945f1
osh-native osh-4118a62c
osh-nosouffle osh-nosouffle-1e155a33
host label host id
no-host no-host-bba74091

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-12-26__18-40-10.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-12-26__18-40-10.times.csv