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 2,589
bash 118,863 1,244
osh-nosouffle 118,863 454
osh-native 118,863 446
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 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-nosouffle 8 4 3 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 332 310 22 22 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 2 0 2 2,512 abuild
bash 4 3 1 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 6 3 9 2,512 abuild
osh-nosouffle 10 6 4 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 471 453 18 22 2,512 abuild
dash 9 7 2 2 20,489 configure
bash 17 16 1 4 20,489 configure
osh-native 39 31 8 22 20,489 configure
osh-nosouffle 42 35 7 23 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,202 2,164 38 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 22 1 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 45 44 1 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-nosouffle 142 114 28 52 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 153 131 22 52 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 6,354 6,272 81 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 2 2 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 2 4 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-nosouffle 7 3 4 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 324 297 27 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 1 2 1,733 functions
bash 3 1 2 3 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 3 4 9 1,733 functions
osh-nosouffle 7 3 4 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 316 295 20 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 4 1 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 7 2 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 20 15 5 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-nosouffle 21 15 6 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 1,027 995 32 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 3 1 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-nosouffle 4 3 1 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 117 96 20 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 0 1 2 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 2 2 1 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-nosouffle 4 2 2 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 3 1 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 122 103 20 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 8 7 1 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 18 11 6 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-nosouffle 18 13 5 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 949 918 31 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 31,601,418 2,698 Build.sh
osh-nosouffle 35,849,659 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,346,197 2,512 abuild
bash 23,586,858 2,512 abuild
osh-native 44,723,994 2,512 abuild
osh-nosouffle 52,280,794 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,490 20,489 configure
bash 166,013,802 20,489 configure
osh-native 231,143,413 20,489 configure
osh-nosouffle 263,062,967 20,489 configure
dash 161,016,284 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,767,942 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 748,387,317 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-nosouffle 862,832,563 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,799,636 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 25,988,006 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-nosouffle 30,266,226 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,799 1,733 functions
bash 15,312,098 1,733 functions
osh-native 24,471,881 1,733 functions
osh-nosouffle 28,861,330 1,733 functions
dash 24,904,718 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,310,064 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 96,275,420 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-nosouffle 112,485,949 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,294,377 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,065,826 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-nosouffle 11,040,688 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 11,870,249 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-nosouffle 13,020,641 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 96,186,392 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-nosouffle 112,290,286 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-36833674
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-e1c2033d
osh-native osh-1639583e
osh-nosouffle osh-nosouffle-90868eb5
host label host id
no-host no-host-bba74091

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2026-01-25__01-45-43.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2026-01-25__01-45-43.times.csv