[barpet]

Why would bash be faster ? Would not you essentially call the same C lib stuff anyway ?

[s_kilk]

It would at least save the process-start overhead, plus loading the ruby vm and modules/gems.

[mikemcquaid]

Exactly. For a simple string comparison Bash is far faster (although Homebrew doesn't use require any gems, just FYI).

[s_kilk]

Good to know, so did the speedup come mostly from not spinning-up the Ruby VM?

[mikemcquaid]

Yep!