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: oil/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 15.1
dash 111,674 2.3
osh-native 118,863 13.1
osh-native-souffle 118,863 11.5

(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 2,721
bash 118,863 695
osh-native-souffle 118,863 402
osh-native 118,863 361
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 2 2 0 1 2,698 Build.sh
bash 5 4 1 3 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 8 4 4 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native-souffle 8 6 3 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 287 264 23 22 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 1 1 1 2,512 abuild
bash 5 5 0 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 5 4 9 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 9 5 4 8 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 388 361 27 22 2,512 abuild
dash 8 8 0 2 20,489 configure
bash 32 31 1 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 49 41 8 20 20,489 configure
osh-native 52 41 11 21 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 1,816 1,776 40 43 20,489 configure
dash 21 20 1 1 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 79 77 2 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 168 141 27 49 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 192 169 23 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 5,517 5,423 93 87 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 5 5 0 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 7 4 3 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 5 2 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 274 248 26 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 1,733 functions
bash 4 3 1 3 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 7 4 3 7 1,733 functions
osh-native 7 6 1 8 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 268 243 26 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 3 1 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 17 14 3 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 21 13 9 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 24 16 8 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 898 867 32 29 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 3 2 2 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 2 2 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 5 3 1 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 106 82 24 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 2 2 7 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 5 2 3 7 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 5 4 1 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 114 91 23 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 15 14 1 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 18 13 5 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 20 14 6 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 791 765 26 28 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Instruction Counts

shell label irefs num lines filename
dash 6,416,010 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native-souffle 32,957,513 2,698 Build.sh
bash 35,958,882 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 37,595,104 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,042,147 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 38,793,863 2,512 abuild
bash 43,761,475 2,512 abuild
osh-native 45,316,565 2,512 abuild
dash 53,261,640 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 241,620,505 20,489 configure
osh-native 276,263,317 20,489 configure
bash 349,702,388 20,489 configure
dash 151,770,612 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 782,404,451 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 880,763,722 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 886,197,417 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 26,538,842 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 30,635,772 2,029 configure-helper.sh
bash 47,119,375 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,652,224 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 24,864,043 1,733 functions
bash 28,169,399 1,733 functions
osh-native 28,971,432 1,733 functions
dash 23,597,230 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,419,851 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 113,403,743 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 172,930,991 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,166,564 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 10,811,205 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 11,860,462 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 25,314,918 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 4,357,271 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 12,675,035 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 13,922,431 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 41,138,083 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,462,555 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 112,722,085 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
bash 161,950,200 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-ddcf379f
dash dash-0ebcf347
osh-cpython osh-9fbde59f
osh-native osh-ec012f77
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-dafc99c4
host label host id
no-host no-host-e4839999

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-03-07__10-12-25.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-03-07__10-12-25.times.csv