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 2,599
bash 118,863 1,281
osh-native-souffle 118,863 520
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 2 0 2 2,698 Build.sh
bash 3 2 1 3 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native-souffle 7 5 2 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 7 5 2 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 310 293 17 21 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 2 0 2 2,512 abuild
bash 4 2 1 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 8 3 4 9 2,512 abuild
osh-native 8 7 1 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 421 395 26 22 2,512 abuild
dash 9 6 3 2 20,489 configure
bash 17 15 2 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 38 28 10 21 20,489 configure
osh-native 41 33 8 22 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,013 1,971 40 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 21 2 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 42 42 0 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 124 112 12 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 134 114 20 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 5,891 5,827 63 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 2 1 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 4 2 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 6 4 2 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 295 275 20 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 1 2 1,733 functions
bash 3 2 1 3 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 6 5 1 8 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 4 2 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 288 263 26 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 3 1 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 8 1 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 18 10 8 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 19 14 5 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 951 921 30 29 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 0 1 2 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 2 1 1 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 1 3 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 1 3 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 109 89 19 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 0 1 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 2 1 1 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 3 1 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 117 97 19 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 8 7 1 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 16 13 3 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 17 13 4 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 857 834 23 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 31,048,025 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 35,233,810 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,343,949 2,512 abuild
bash 23,565,556 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 36,307,008 2,512 abuild
osh-native 42,131,275 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,249 20,489 configure
bash 166,228,288 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 230,629,767 20,489 configure
osh-native 262,052,393 20,489 configure
dash 161,007,687 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,577,808 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 753,425,133 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 842,212,927 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,785,798 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 24,690,972 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 28,402,978 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,021 1,733 functions
bash 15,304,971 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 23,068,369 1,733 functions
osh-native 26,759,063 1,733 functions
dash 24,901,464 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,225,385 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 91,986,540 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 106,460,076 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,292,797 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 9,913,528 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,868,654 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 11,717,391 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 12,874,890 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 92,474,497 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 106,574,539 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-c45545ef
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-ff7d3fca
osh-native osh-12a405da
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-ca1a3796
host label host id
no-host no-host-2411472

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-06-08__16-09-32.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-06-08__16-09-32.times.csv