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 2,750
bash 118,863 708
osh-native-souffle 118,863 452
osh-native 118,863 434
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 3 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 8 5 2 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 281 254 27 22 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 8 1 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 376 353 23 22 2,512 abuild
dash 8 7 1 2 20,489 configure
bash 32 31 1 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 42 35 7 21 20,489 configure
osh-native 43 33 11 21 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 1,803 1,767 36 43 20,489 configure
dash 22 20 2 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 77 76 1 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 149 125 24 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 154 125 29 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 5,356 5,290 66 87 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 6 3 3 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 5 1 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 5 2 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 274 252 22 22 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 1,733 functions
bash 4 2 2 3 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 6 2 4 8 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 3 3 8 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 263 245 18 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 3 1 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 16 15 1 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 19 13 6 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 21 15 6 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 884 860 24 29 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 0 1 1 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 4 2 1 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 0 4 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 103 82 21 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 2 2 7 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 3 1 7 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 5 3 2 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 110 84 26 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 15 13 2 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 17 15 2 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 18 15 3 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 778 745 33 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 32,964,365 2,698 Build.sh
bash 35,958,882 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 37,602,472 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,042,147 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 38,801,096 2,512 abuild
bash 43,761,475 2,512 abuild
osh-native 45,324,921 2,512 abuild
dash 53,261,640 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 241,642,641 20,489 configure
osh-native 276,286,163 20,489 configure
bash 349,702,388 20,489 configure
dash 151,770,612 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 782,433,267 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 880,793,569 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 886,197,417 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 26,544,051 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 30,641,338 2,029 configure-helper.sh
bash 47,119,375 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,652,224 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 24,868,959 1,733 functions
bash 28,169,399 1,733 functions
osh-native 28,976,612 1,733 functions
dash 23,597,230 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,429,514 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 113,412,474 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 10,815,817 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 11,865,388 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 12,679,427 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 13,926,971 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 41,138,083 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 97,490,940 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 112,742,548 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-4180023e
dash dash-0ebcf347
osh-cpython osh-df9ffb25
osh-native osh-8a3c3345
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-4639e47f
host label host id
no-host no-host-20fc69f9

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-04-27__09-34-45.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-04-27__09-34-45.times.csv