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 3,744
bash 118,863 956
osh-native-souffle 118,863 515
osh-native 118,863 494
osh-cpython 118,863 15

Per-File Measurements

Time and Memory

shell label elapsed ms user ms sys ms max rss MB num lines filename
dash 1 1 0 2 2,698 Build.sh
bash 3 0 3 3 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 6 0 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 6 3 3 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 211 198 12 22 2,698 Build.sh
dash 1 1 0 2 2,512 abuild
bash 4 4 0 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 7 7 0 8 2,512 abuild
osh-native 8 7 0 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 282 265 16 23 2,512 abuild
dash 6 0 6 2 20,489 configure
bash 23 23 0 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 35 24 12 20 20,489 configure
osh-native 38 30 8 21 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 1,364 1,335 28 43 20,489 configure
dash 15 15 0 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 57 57 0 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 136 115 20 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 138 110 28 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 4,142 4,065 76 87 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 4 0 4 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 5 0 5 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 6 3 3 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 201 192 8 22 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 0 2 1,733 functions
bash 3 3 0 3 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 5 5 0 8 1,733 functions
osh-native 5 0 5 8 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 196 180 16 21 1,733 functions
dash 3 0 3 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 12 12 0 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 16 16 0 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 18 13 4 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 647 614 32 29 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 1 0 2 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 3 3 0 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 3 0 3 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 3 3 0 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 80 68 12 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 1 0 2 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 3 0 3 7 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 0 4 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 4 4 0 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 83 62 20 20 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 11 11 0 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 14 10 3 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 15 5 10 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 579 551 28 28 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Instruction Counts

shell label irefs num lines filename
dash 6,417,905 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native-souffle 33,015,800 2,698 Build.sh
bash 35,933,919 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 37,654,043 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,043,427 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 38,853,208 2,512 abuild
bash 43,752,445 2,512 abuild
osh-native 45,375,554 2,512 abuild
dash 53,264,106 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 241,695,721 20,489 configure
osh-native 276,339,463 20,489 configure
bash 349,528,134 20,489 configure
dash 151,775,776 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 782,486,511 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 880,848,049 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 886,051,458 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 26,594,010 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 30,691,435 2,029 configure-helper.sh
bash 47,119,656 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,654,611 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 24,919,789 1,733 functions
bash 28,153,410 1,733 functions
osh-native 29,027,517 1,733 functions
dash 23,598,849 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,480,087 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 113,463,845 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 172,845,801 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,168,267 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 10,865,609 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 11,915,708 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 25,320,150 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 4,358,947 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 12,729,351 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 13,977,143 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 41,145,971 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,541,556 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 112,792,466 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
bash 161,991,275 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-be94c773
dash dash-0ebcf347
osh-cpython osh-1e816b68
osh-native osh-03a63c69
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-2ca53013
host label host id
no-host no-host-6df8bfd3

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-04-17__01-20-51.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-04-17__01-20-51.times.csv