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 2,757
bash 118,863 705
osh-native-souffle 118,863 484
osh-native 118,863 447
osh-cpython 118,863 12

Per-File Measurements

Time and Memory

shell label elapsed ms user ms sys ms max rss MB num lines filename
dash 2 1 1 1 2,698 Build.sh
bash 5 5 0 3 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native-souffle 7 6 1 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 8 7 1 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 290 267 23 21 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 1 1 1 2,512 abuild
bash 5 4 1 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 8 6 2 8 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 7 2 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 378 357 22 22 2,512 abuild
dash 8 6 2 2 20,489 configure
bash 32 31 1 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 40 36 5 20 20,489 configure
osh-native 45 36 9 21 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 1,850 1,805 44 43 20,489 configure
dash 22 21 1 1 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 78 76 2 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 135 112 22 49 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 144 122 22 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 5,273 5,204 69 87 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 5 4 2 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 4 2 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 3 3 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 273 250 23 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 6 2 4 7 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 4 2 8 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 259 237 23 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 3 1 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 17 16 1 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 19 19 0 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 20 16 4 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 849 821 27 29 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 3 3 0 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 3 1 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 1 3 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 105 86 19 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 3 1 7 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 7 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 5 3 2 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 108 85 23 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 15 14 1 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 17 14 3 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 18 14 4 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 776 748 28 27 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 32,961,960 2,698 Build.sh
bash 35,958,882 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 37,599,830 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,042,147 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 38,798,475 2,512 abuild
bash 43,761,475 2,512 abuild
osh-native 45,321,161 2,512 abuild
dash 53,261,640 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 241,632,077 20,489 configure
osh-native 276,275,222 20,489 configure
bash 349,702,388 20,489 configure
dash 151,770,612 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 782,423,442 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 880,783,806 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 886,197,417 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 26,542,052 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 30,639,336 2,029 configure-helper.sh
bash 47,119,375 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,652,224 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 24,867,250 1,733 functions
bash 28,169,399 1,733 functions
osh-native 28,974,740 1,733 functions
dash 23,597,230 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,425,014 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 113,409,673 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 10,812,766 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 11,862,513 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 12,676,856 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 13,923,139 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 41,138,083 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,477,197 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 112,727,625 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-c917bdbf
dash dash-0ebcf347
osh-cpython osh-6c15b9ee
osh-native osh-9865a04b
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-a4e2249f
host label host id
no-host no-host-e4839999

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-03-19__03-14-11.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-03-19__03-14-11.times.csv