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 2,614
bash 118,863 1,283
osh-native-souffle 118,863 514
osh-native 118,863 484
osh-cpython 118,863 11

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 4 2 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 7 6 1 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 308 282 26 21 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 2 0 1 2,512 abuild
bash 4 3 1 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 8 4 4 9 2,512 abuild
osh-native 8 7 1 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 421 389 31 22 2,512 abuild
dash 9 8 1 2 20,489 configure
bash 17 16 1 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 38 27 11 21 20,489 configure
osh-native 40 31 10 22 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,018 1,972 46 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 23 0 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 42 41 1 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 126 107 19 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 134 117 17 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 5,906 5,834 72 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 2 1 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 4 2 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 6 4 2 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 298 271 27 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 1,733 functions
bash 3 2 1 3 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 6 4 2 8 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 2 4 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 289 269 20 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 2 2 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 8 1 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 18 16 2 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 19 15 4 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 956 925 31 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 3 1 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 1 3 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 110 88 22 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 2 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 2 2 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 117 94 23 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 8 7 1 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 16 11 5 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 17 15 2 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 865 838 27 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 31,029,946 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 35,341,079 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,343,949 2,512 abuild
bash 23,565,556 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 36,278,638 2,512 abuild
osh-native 42,304,752 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,249 20,489 configure
bash 166,228,288 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 230,513,915 20,489 configure
osh-native 262,822,899 20,489 configure
dash 161,007,687 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,577,808 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 753,049,447 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 844,512,649 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,785,798 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 24,675,054 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 28,503,464 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,021 1,733 functions
bash 15,304,971 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 23,050,301 1,733 functions
osh-native 26,864,882 1,733 functions
dash 24,901,464 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,225,385 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 91,936,453 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 106,833,929 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,292,797 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 9,909,438 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,889,968 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 11,713,249 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 12,894,397 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 92,391,485 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 106,871,657 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-e468cf39
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-a8408e0e
osh-native osh-a0f1984c
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-79b1e2d4
host label host id
no-host no-host-2411472

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-05-15__00-04-27.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-05-15__00-04-27.times.csv