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 2,742
bash 118,863 701
osh-native-souffle 118,863 474
osh-native 118,863 438
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-souffle 7 5 2 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 8 5 2 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 289 264 25 21 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 1 1 1 2,512 abuild
bash 5 5 0 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 8 6 2 8 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 5 4 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 389 364 25 22 2,512 abuild
dash 8 8 0 2 20,489 configure
bash 32 30 3 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 40 32 8 20 20,489 configure
osh-native 43 34 9 21 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 1,854 1,805 49 43 20,489 configure
dash 21 20 1 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 78 77 1 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 140 116 24 49 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 151 133 18 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 5,432 5,352 79 87 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 5 5 0 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 5 1 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 3 4 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 282 261 21 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 0 1 1 1,733 functions
bash 4 3 1 3 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 6 3 3 8 1,733 functions
osh-native 7 3 4 8 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 269 243 26 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 3 1 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 17 15 2 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 19 14 5 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 21 13 7 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 868 837 30 29 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 4 2 2 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 3 1 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 108 92 16 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 0 1 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 0 4 7 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 7 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 5 4 1 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 113 91 22 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 15 14 1 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 17 11 6 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 18 16 2 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 794 768 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 32,961,969 2,698 Build.sh
bash 35,958,882 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 37,599,789 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,042,147 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 38,798,484 2,512 abuild
bash 43,761,475 2,512 abuild
osh-native 45,321,121 2,512 abuild
dash 53,261,640 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 241,632,116 20,489 configure
osh-native 276,275,180 20,489 configure
bash 349,702,388 20,489 configure
dash 151,770,612 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 782,423,481 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 880,783,765 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 886,197,417 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 26,542,061 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 30,639,295 2,029 configure-helper.sh
bash 47,119,375 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,652,224 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 24,867,259 1,733 functions
bash 28,169,399 1,733 functions
osh-native 28,974,699 1,733 functions
dash 23,597,230 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,424,885 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 113,409,158 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 10,812,719 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 11,862,314 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 12,676,865 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 13,924,098 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 41,138,083 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,476,977 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 112,727,278 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-3f393cdf
dash dash-0ebcf347
osh-cpython osh-9e41eebf
osh-native osh-e619d8a7
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-4ce03152
host label host id
no-host no-host-e4839999

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-03-22__01-04-53.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-03-22__01-04-53.times.csv