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 2,595
bash 118,863 1,212
osh-native 118,863 483
osh-nosouffle 118,863 436
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 6 2 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 323 301 22 22 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 1 1 2 2,512 abuild
bash 4 3 1 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 6 3 9 2,512 abuild
osh-nosouffle 10 5 5 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 455 435 20 23 2,512 abuild
dash 9 9 0 2 20,489 configure
bash 17 15 2 4 20,489 configure
osh-native 38 30 8 23 20,489 configure
osh-nosouffle 42 33 9 23 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,136 2,100 36 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 22 1 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 42 40 2 4 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 135 110 25 52 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-nosouffle 150 129 21 52 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 6,260 6,180 79 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 2 1 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 6 3 3 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-nosouffle 7 4 3 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 314 293 21 22 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 0 2 1,733 functions
bash 3 1 1 3 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 3 3 9 1,733 functions
osh-nosouffle 7 3 4 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 308 284 24 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 4 0 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 9 0 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 19 15 4 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-nosouffle 22 18 4 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 1,017 986 30 30 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 1 0 2 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 2 1 1 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-nosouffle 4 0 4 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 114 96 18 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 0 1 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 4 2 3 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 120 103 17 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 12 10 2 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 17 11 6 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-nosouffle 18 10 9 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 916 883 34 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 31,601,637 2,698 Build.sh
osh-nosouffle 35,849,941 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,346,197 2,512 abuild
bash 23,586,858 2,512 abuild
osh-native 44,724,213 2,512 abuild
osh-nosouffle 52,281,076 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,490 20,489 configure
bash 166,013,802 20,489 configure
osh-native 231,144,472 20,489 configure
osh-nosouffle 263,063,222 20,489 configure
dash 161,016,284 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,767,942 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 748,387,530 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-nosouffle 862,832,818 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,799,636 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 25,988,219 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-nosouffle 30,266,508 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,799 1,733 functions
bash 15,312,098 1,733 functions
osh-native 24,472,100 1,733 functions
osh-nosouffle 28,861,585 1,733 functions
dash 24,904,718 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,310,064 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 96,275,639 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-nosouffle 112,486,231 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,294,377 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,066,030 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-nosouffle 11,040,934 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 11,870,453 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-nosouffle 13,020,914 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 96,186,893 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-nosouffle 112,290,620 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-36833674
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-5e113690
osh-native osh-13dbbba4
osh-nosouffle osh-nosouffle-59029287
host label host id
no-host no-host-bba74091

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2026-01-26__02-05-08.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2026-01-26__02-05-08.times.csv