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 7.3
dash 111,674 2.4
osh-native 118,863 12.4
osh-native-souffle 118,863 11.0

(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 2,500
bash 118,863 1,228
osh-native-souffle 118,863 485
osh-native 118,863 432
osh-cpython 118,863 10

Per-File Measurements

Time and Memory

shell label elapsed ms user ms sys ms max rss MB num lines filename
dash 2 1 1 2 2,698 Build.sh
bash 4 2 1 3 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native-souffle 7 6 1 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 8 6 2 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 323 297 25 21 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 1 1 2 2,512 abuild
bash 4 2 2 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 8 5 3 9 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 6 3 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 422 400 23 22 2,512 abuild
dash 9 8 1 2 20,489 configure
bash 17 15 2 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 39 31 8 21 20,489 configure
osh-native 44 37 7 21 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,051 2,011 38 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 23 0 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 44 43 1 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 136 111 25 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 155 135 20 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 6,153 6,059 93 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 2 1 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 3 3 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 4 3 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 304 274 30 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 1 2 1,733 functions
bash 3 1 2 3 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 6 5 1 8 1,733 functions
osh-native 7 4 2 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 291 271 21 21 1,733 functions
dash 5 5 0 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 7 2 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 19 14 5 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 20 17 3 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 994 961 34 29 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 0 1 2 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 2 1 1 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 1 3 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 111 91 19 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 3 1 2 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 2 2 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 1 4 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 118 102 16 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 8 6 2 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 16 12 4 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 18 13 5 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 896 868 28 28 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Instruction Counts

shell label irefs num lines filename
dash 6,683,550 2,698 Build.sh
bash 19,397,953 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native-souffle 31,029,196 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 35,340,610 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,343,949 2,512 abuild
bash 23,565,556 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 36,277,924 2,512 abuild
osh-native 42,304,316 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,249 20,489 configure
bash 166,228,288 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 230,513,216 20,489 configure
osh-native 262,822,418 20,489 configure
dash 161,007,687 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,577,808 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 753,048,733 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 844,512,186 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,785,798 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 24,674,368 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 28,502,993 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,021 1,733 functions
bash 15,304,971 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 23,049,587 1,733 functions
osh-native 26,864,446 1,733 functions
dash 24,901,464 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,225,385 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 91,935,739 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 106,833,271 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,292,797 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 9,908,740 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,889,474 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 11,084,082 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 4,583,408 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 11,712,527 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 12,893,899 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 16,672,903 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 73,188,823 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 92,390,755 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 106,871,167 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-86c4e5a6
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-323a7bfe
osh-native osh-a023af59
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-f7b95fad
host label host id
no-host no-host-2411472

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-05-10__20-18-35.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-05-10__20-18-35.times.csv