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 2,740
bash 118,863 698
osh-native-souffle 118,863 440
osh-native 118,863 420
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 5 4 1 3 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native-souffle 7 3 4 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 8 5 3 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 285 265 20 22 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 1 1 1 2,512 abuild
bash 5 4 1 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 8 5 4 8 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 6 3 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 379 353 26 22 2,512 abuild
dash 8 7 1 2 20,489 configure
bash 32 29 3 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 42 31 11 21 20,489 configure
osh-native 44 37 7 21 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 1,836 1,804 33 43 20,489 configure
dash 22 21 1 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 78 77 1 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 155 142 13 49 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 161 142 19 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 5,285 5,211 73 87 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 5 4 1 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 4 2 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 5 2 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 286 264 22 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 1,733 functions
bash 4 3 2 3 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 6 2 4 8 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 4 2 8 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 262 239 23 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 4 0 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 17 17 0 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 20 17 3 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 21 18 3 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 877 840 37 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 4 2 2 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 2 3 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 103 84 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 3 1 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 5 3 1 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 113 98 15 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 15 14 1 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 17 12 5 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 19 12 7 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 789 770 19 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 32,963,497 2,698 Build.sh
bash 35,958,882 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 37,601,637 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,042,147 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 38,800,018 2,512 abuild
bash 43,761,475 2,512 abuild
osh-native 45,323,770 2,512 abuild
dash 53,261,640 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 241,640,592 20,489 configure
osh-native 276,283,506 20,489 configure
bash 349,702,388 20,489 configure
dash 151,770,612 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 782,429,575 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 880,788,453 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 886,197,417 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 26,543,362 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 30,640,768 2,029 configure-helper.sh
bash 47,119,375 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,652,224 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 24,868,556 1,733 functions
bash 28,169,399 1,733 functions
osh-native 28,976,202 1,733 functions
dash 23,597,230 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,427,664 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 113,411,175 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 10,813,682 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 11,863,445 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 12,677,715 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 13,925,075 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 41,138,083 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,489,036 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 112,739,741 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-c580f5d5
dash dash-0ebcf347
osh-cpython osh-031a137a
osh-native osh-efed75e6
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-722d0432
host label host id
no-host no-host-e4839999

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-03-26__20-04-00.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-03-26__20-04-00.times.csv