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 2,515
bash 118,863 1,232
osh-native-souffle 118,863 472
osh-native 118,863 436
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 2 0 2 2,698 Build.sh
bash 4 2 1 3 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native-souffle 7 4 3 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 8 3 5 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 316 283 32 21 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 1 1 2 2,512 abuild
bash 4 3 1 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 432 407 25 22 2,512 abuild
dash 9 7 2 2 20,489 configure
bash 17 15 2 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 39 31 8 21 20,489 configure
osh-native 42 30 12 21 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,079 2,029 50 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 21 2 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 43 40 3 4 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 142 113 29 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 156 130 26 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 6,219 6,131 87 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 2 1 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 4 3 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 5 2 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 305 279 26 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 1 1 1,733 functions
bash 3 1 2 3 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 6 3 3 8 1,733 functions
osh-native 7 5 1 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 293 262 31 21 1,733 functions
dash 5 4 1 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 10 7 3 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 19 11 8 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 19 11 8 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 979 949 30 29 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 1 0 2 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 2 1 1 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 3 1 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 114 94 20 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 3 1 1 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 1 3 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 3 1 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 118 91 27 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 8 8 0 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 16 13 3 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 17 14 3 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 883 851 32 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 31,029,889 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 35,340,995 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,343,949 2,512 abuild
bash 23,565,556 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 36,278,581 2,512 abuild
osh-native 42,304,695 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,249 20,489 configure
bash 166,228,288 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 230,513,858 20,489 configure
osh-native 262,822,842 20,489 configure
dash 161,007,687 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,577,808 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 753,049,390 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 844,512,619 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,785,798 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 24,674,997 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 28,503,407 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,021 1,733 functions
bash 15,304,971 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 23,050,244 1,733 functions
osh-native 26,864,825 1,733 functions
dash 24,901,464 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,225,385 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 91,936,396 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 106,833,845 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,292,797 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 9,909,381 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,889,911 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 11,713,192 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 12,894,313 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 92,391,428 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 106,871,573 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-938ab121
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-8fa87acc
osh-native osh-d39bf8a8
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-936ee8f4
host label host id
no-host no-host-2411472

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-05-13__15-33-20.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-05-13__15-33-20.times.csv