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 2,554
bash 118,863 1,258
osh-native-souffle 118,863 503
osh-native 118,863 461
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 3 2 1 3 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native-souffle 7 3 4 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 7 4 4 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 316 292 24 21 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 1 1 2 2,512 abuild
bash 4 2 1 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 8 5 3 9 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 6 2 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 431 412 19 22 2,512 abuild
dash 9 9 0 2 20,489 configure
bash 17 16 1 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 40 34 6 21 20,489 configure
osh-native 43 34 9 22 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,052 2,014 37 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 22 1 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 43 41 2 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 128 105 23 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 141 119 22 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 5,959 5,901 58 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 3 1 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 2 4 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 5 1 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 299 276 22 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 0 2 1,733 functions
bash 3 1 2 3 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 6 2 4 8 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 4 2 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 288 259 29 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 4 1 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 7 2 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 18 11 7 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 20 13 7 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 966 931 34 29 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 1 0 2 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 2 2 0 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 110 91 19 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 0 1 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 2 2 0 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 2 2 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 120 105 15 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 8 7 1 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 16 14 2 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 18 13 5 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 862 837 25 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 31,029,253 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 35,340,667 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,343,949 2,512 abuild
bash 23,565,556 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 36,277,981 2,512 abuild
osh-native 42,304,373 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,249 20,489 configure
bash 166,228,288 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 230,513,273 20,489 configure
osh-native 262,822,502 20,489 configure
dash 161,007,687 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,577,808 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 753,048,790 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 844,512,243 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,785,798 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 24,674,425 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 28,503,023 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,021 1,733 functions
bash 15,304,971 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 23,049,644 1,733 functions
osh-native 26,864,476 1,733 functions
dash 24,901,464 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,225,385 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 91,935,796 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 106,833,355 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,292,797 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 9,908,797 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,889,504 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 11,712,584 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 12,893,983 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 92,390,812 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 106,871,251 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-f7940b3d
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-7ae2b581
osh-native osh-0cf5d1cc
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-2aa5d4b1
host label host id
no-host no-host-2411472

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-05-11__02-07-29.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-05-11__02-07-29.times.csv