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 2,574
bash 118,863 1,265
osh-native-souffle 118,863 492
osh-native 118,863 446
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 3 3 0 3 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native-souffle 7 4 3 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 8 4 4 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 320 296 25 21 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 2 0 2 2,512 abuild
bash 4 3 1 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 8 4 5 9 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 7 2 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 441 402 39 22 2,512 abuild
dash 9 9 0 2 20,489 configure
bash 17 16 1 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 40 31 9 21 20,489 configure
osh-native 43 30 13 21 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,128 2,087 41 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 20 3 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 43 41 2 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 131 103 28 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 147 127 19 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 6,221 6,163 58 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 3 0 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 7 3 4 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 5 2 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 306 290 17 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 5 8 1,733 functions
osh-native 7 5 2 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 296 269 27 21 1,733 functions
dash 5 4 1 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 8 1 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 19 15 4 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 21 15 5 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 969 934 36 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 2 2 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 113 87 26 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 4 0 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 121 102 19 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 8 7 1 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 16 12 4 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 18 14 4 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 905 881 24 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 31,047,879 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 35,234,050 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,343,949 2,512 abuild
bash 23,565,556 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 36,307,069 2,512 abuild
osh-native 42,131,206 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,249 20,489 configure
bash 166,228,288 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 230,629,751 20,489 configure
osh-native 262,052,280 20,489 configure
dash 161,007,687 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,577,808 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 753,421,460 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 842,195,400 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,785,798 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 24,690,878 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 28,402,899 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,021 1,733 functions
bash 15,304,971 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 23,068,409 1,733 functions
osh-native 26,759,195 1,733 functions
dash 24,901,464 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,225,385 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 91,986,566 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 106,459,958 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,292,797 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 9,913,714 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,868,681 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 11,717,411 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 12,875,177 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 92,474,667 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 106,574,849 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-d7788266
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-1fd9b6f1
osh-native osh-b0a81dd3
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-7c3cd0f8
host label host id
no-host no-host-2411472

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-05-19__05-44-30.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-05-19__05-44-30.times.csv