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 2,703
bash 118,863 705
osh-native-souffle 118,863 456
osh-native 118,863 431
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 2 0 1 2,698 Build.sh
bash 4 3 1 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 281 255 26 22 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 2 0 1 2,512 abuild
bash 5 4 2 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 8 6 2 8 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 8 1 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 385 364 21 22 2,512 abuild
dash 9 8 1 2 20,489 configure
bash 32 30 2 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 41 32 9 20 20,489 configure
osh-native 45 36 9 21 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 1,797 1,752 45 43 20,489 configure
dash 22 22 0 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 78 76 2 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 148 126 22 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 155 130 25 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 5,387 5,328 59 87 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 5 4 2 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 5 1 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 3 3 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 278 256 22 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 6 4 2 8 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 262 239 23 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 2 2 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 17 16 1 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 19 13 6 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 20 14 6 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 865 836 29 29 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 0 1 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 4 3 1 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 103 79 25 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 0 1 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 1 3 7 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 3 2 7 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 5 3 1 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 110 89 21 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 15 15 0 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 17 14 3 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 18 13 5 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 800 775 25 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 32,961,886 2,698 Build.sh
bash 35,958,882 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 37,599,794 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,042,147 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 38,798,401 2,512 abuild
bash 43,761,475 2,512 abuild
osh-native 45,321,126 2,512 abuild
dash 53,261,640 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 241,632,033 20,489 configure
osh-native 276,275,215 20,489 configure
bash 349,702,388 20,489 configure
dash 151,770,612 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 782,423,398 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 880,783,800 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 886,197,417 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 26,541,978 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 30,639,300 2,029 configure-helper.sh
bash 47,119,375 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,652,224 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 24,867,176 1,733 functions
bash 28,169,399 1,733 functions
osh-native 28,974,704 1,733 functions
dash 23,597,230 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,425,138 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 113,409,193 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 10,812,748 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 11,862,319 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 12,676,782 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 13,924,103 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 41,138,083 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,477,069 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 112,727,312 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-ba53f0d1
dash dash-0ebcf347
osh-cpython osh-7074f96c
osh-native osh-ba6c7ab0
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-61cf6238
host label host id
no-host no-host-e4839999

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-03-23__05-05-23.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-03-23__05-05-23.times.csv