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 2,593
bash 118,863 1,273
osh-native-souffle 118,863 497
osh-native 118,863 473
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 5 2 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 8 4 4 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 325 298 28 21 2,698 Build.sh
dash 2 2 0 2 2,512 abuild
bash 4 4 0 3 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 8 4 4 9 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 5 4 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 431 413 18 22 2,512 abuild
dash 9 9 0 2 20,489 configure
bash 17 15 2 4 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 39 33 6 21 20,489 configure
osh-native 42 37 5 22 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,156 2,109 47 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 23 0 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 43 41 2 4 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 131 104 28 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 136 116 20 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 6,121 6,039 79 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 2 1 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 3 3 8 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 5 2 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 308 293 16 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 1 2 1,733 functions
bash 3 1 2 3 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 6 5 1 9 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 3 3 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 295 274 21 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 4 1 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 8 1 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 18 11 7 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 20 17 3 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 1,000 966 33 29 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 0 1 2 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 2 0 2 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 2 2 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 111 90 21 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 2 2 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 121 97 24 19 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 8 8 0 3 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native-souffle 16 15 1 12 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 17 13 4 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 901 879 22 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 31,134,349 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 35,309,580 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,343,949 2,512 abuild
bash 23,565,556 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 36,443,978 2,512 abuild
osh-native 42,252,166 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,249 20,489 configure
bash 166,228,288 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 231,299,210 20,489 configure
osh-native 262,634,028 20,489 configure
dash 161,007,687 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,577,808 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 755,376,623 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 843,934,955 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,785,798 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 24,779,554 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 28,481,283 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,021 1,733 functions
bash 15,304,971 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 23,153,336 1,733 functions
osh-native 26,834,204 1,733 functions
dash 24,901,464 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,225,385 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 92,285,798 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 106,722,103 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,292,797 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 9,927,889 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,881,259 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 11,730,510 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 12,886,431 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 92,742,790 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 106,794,501 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-2a477c8e
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-e2120546
osh-native osh-839a8a9f
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-a528e093
host label host id
no-host no-host-31404de8

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-06-13__21-16-36.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-06-13__21-16-36.times.csv