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 2,711
bash 118,863 708
osh-native-souffle 118,863 441
osh-native 118,863 411
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 5 2 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 8 5 3 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 284 263 21 22 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 1 1 1 2,512 abuild
bash 5 4 2 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 8 5 4 8 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 8 1 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 382 358 24 22 2,512 abuild
dash 8 7 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 44 32 12 21 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 1,861 1,822 39 43 20,489 configure
dash 21 21 0 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 78 75 3 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 155 139 16 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 168 151 16 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 5,339 5,260 78 87 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 5 5 0 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 4 3 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 4 3 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 277 258 19 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 0 1 1 1,733 functions
bash 4 4 0 3 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 6 3 3 7 1,733 functions
osh-native 7 5 1 8 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 262 241 22 21 1,733 functions
dash 5 3 1 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 17 13 4 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 21 15 5 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 21 18 3 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 870 839 32 29 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 0 1 1 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 3 2 1 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 2 2 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 105 87 17 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 0 1 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 3 2 7 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 3 1 7 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 5 4 1 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 110 91 19 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 15 14 1 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 17 10 7 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 18 13 5 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 782 754 28 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 32,963,939 2,698 Build.sh
bash 35,958,882 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 37,601,673 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,042,147 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 38,800,216 2,512 abuild
bash 43,761,475 2,512 abuild
osh-native 45,324,316 2,512 abuild
dash 53,261,640 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 241,641,120 20,489 configure
osh-native 276,284,139 20,489 configure
bash 349,702,388 20,489 configure
dash 151,770,612 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 782,424,524 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 880,789,248 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 886,197,417 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 26,543,609 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 30,640,737 2,029 configure-helper.sh
bash 47,119,375 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,652,224 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 24,868,876 1,733 functions
bash 28,169,399 1,733 functions
osh-native 28,976,359 1,733 functions
dash 23,597,230 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,427,985 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 113,410,750 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 10,814,012 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 11,863,570 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 12,677,607 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 13,925,048 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 41,138,083 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,489,284 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 112,741,788 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-f0290917
dash dash-0ebcf347
osh-cpython osh-e6fe0813
osh-native osh-949ee51f
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-83768f4f
host label host id
no-host no-host-e4839999

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-03-25__17-16-43.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-03-25__17-16-43.times.csv