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 2,603
bash 118,863 1,270
osh-native-souffle 118,863 501
osh-native 118,863 471
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 6 1 8 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 7 5 3 9 2,698 Build.sh
osh-cpython 316 289 27 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 5 3 9 2,512 abuild
osh-native 9 6 3 9 2,512 abuild
osh-cpython 436 417 19 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 41 37 4 21 20,489 configure
osh-cpython 2,135 2,093 42 44 20,489 configure
dash 23 22 1 2 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 43 41 2 3 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 131 114 17 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 139 111 28 50 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-cpython 6,227 6,161 65 91 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 3 3 0 3 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 6 3 3 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 7 3 4 9 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-cpython 311 290 21 21 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 1 1 1 1 1,733 functions
bash 3 2 1 3 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 6 5 1 8 1,733 functions
osh-native 6 5 1 9 1,733 functions
osh-cpython 298 283 15 21 1,733 functions
dash 4 4 0 2 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 9 8 1 4 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 18 12 6 15 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 19 12 7 16 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-cpython 989 955 34 29 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
bash 2 1 1 3 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 4 0 7 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 8 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-cpython 111 92 20 19 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
dash 1 1 0 1 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
bash 2 2 1 3 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 4 2 2 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native-souffle 4 3 1 8 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-cpython 119 95 24 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 14 3 13 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-cpython 890 859 31 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 31,136,059 2,698 Build.sh
osh-native 35,311,477 2,698 Build.sh
dash 7,343,949 2,512 abuild
bash 23,565,556 2,512 abuild
osh-native-souffle 36,445,770 2,512 abuild
osh-native 42,253,968 2,512 abuild
dash 55,988,249 20,489 configure
bash 166,228,288 20,489 configure
osh-native-souffle 231,304,606 20,489 configure
osh-native 262,637,114 20,489 configure
dash 161,007,687 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 440,577,808 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native-souffle 755,379,657 69,779 configure-coreutils
osh-native 843,944,127 69,779 configure-coreutils
bash 22,785,798 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native-souffle 24,781,037 2,029 configure-helper.sh
osh-native 28,482,898 2,029 configure-helper.sh
dash 4,811,021 1,733 functions
bash 15,304,971 1,733 functions
osh-native-souffle 23,154,912 1,733 functions
osh-native 26,835,738 1,733 functions
dash 24,901,464 9,661 ltmain.sh
bash 80,225,385 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native-souffle 92,287,983 9,661 ltmain.sh
osh-native 106,723,922 9,661 ltmain.sh
dash 3,292,797 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native-souffle 9,929,138 1,679 t4014-format-patch.sh
osh-native 10,882,481 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 11,731,745 3,123 t9300-fast-import.sh
osh-native 12,887,642 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 92,745,453 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh
osh-native 106,797,075 5,160 test-cmd-util.sh

Shell and Host Details

shell label shell id
bash bash-867d7c6b
dash dash-cea41b3e
osh-cpython osh-aeab35fb
osh-native osh-b0d98bde
osh-native-souffle osh-native-souffle-d8f3808c
host label host id
no-host no-host-31404de8

Raw Data

filename
no-host.2025-06-15__02-14-32.cachegrind.tsv
no-host.2025-06-15__02-14-32.times.csv