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 2,605
bash 118,863 1,266
osh-native-souffle 118,863 468
osh-native 118,863 438
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 4 3 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 8 5 2 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 321 299 22 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 7 1 9 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 7 2 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 434 409 25 22 2,512 abuild
dash 9 8 1 2 20,489 configure
bash 17 15 2 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 40 31 9 21 20,489 configure
osh-native 42 35 8 21 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,098 2,047 51 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 23 0 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 43 42 1 4 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 144 116 28 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 155 133 22 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 6,125 6,041 84 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 2 2 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 3 3 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 6 4 2 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 307 288 19 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 1 2 1,733 functions
bash 3 3 0 3 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 6 2 4 8 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 3 4 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 297 273 24 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 4 0 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 9 0 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 18 13 6 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 20 16 3 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 977 955 22 29 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 0 1 1 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 2 0 2 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 113 96 18 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 2 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 3 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 121 98 23 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 8 6 2 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 16 11 5 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 17 14 4 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 891 867 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 31,047,885 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 35,234,054 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,343,949 2,512 abuild
bash 23,565,556 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 36,307,075 2,512 abuild
osh-native 42,131,210 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,249 20,489 configure
bash 166,228,288 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 230,629,757 20,489 configure
osh-native 262,052,311 20,489 configure
dash 161,007,687 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,577,808 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 753,421,466 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 842,195,404 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,785,798 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 24,690,884 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 28,402,876 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,021 1,733 functions
bash 15,304,971 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 23,068,415 1,733 functions
osh-native 26,759,199 1,733 functions
dash 24,901,464 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,225,385 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 91,986,572 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 106,460,106 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,292,797 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 9,913,720 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,868,733 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 11,717,417 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 12,875,181 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 92,474,673 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 106,574,901 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-7978f8dc
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-4cba9e81
osh-native osh-fc9cf45b
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-ebf8bbd9
host label host id
no-host no-host-2411472

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-05-19__04-41-28.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-05-19__04-41-28.times.csv