[laurenth]

From our experience, ksh is generally faster, and dash sits between ksh and bash. One reason is that dash stores variables using a very small hash table with only 37 entries[0] meaning variable access quickly becomes linear as memory usage grows. But even with that, dash is still surprisingly fast -- when compiling `pnut.c` with `pnut.sh`, dash comes in second place:

  ksh93: 31s
  dash:  1m06s
  bash:  1m19s
  zsh:   >15m

[0]: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/dash/dash.git/tree/src/...

EDIT: ksh93, not ksh

[cb321]

For me `dash` compiles in just a few seconds. If you link to a 1-line problem (here, #define VTABSIZE 39), then why not boost that to 79 or 113, say, re-compile the shell and re-run your benchmark? Might lead to a change in upstream that could benefit everyone.

[chasil]

Or rework the array so realloc() can expand its size?

[cb321]

Yes.. Another fine idea, just more work than a 2 character edit. :-)

[AdmiralAsshat]

People still use KornShell?

[chasil]

All of Android is still based on a pdksh-derivative known as mksh, which is an enormous install base.

http://www.mirbsd.org/mksh.htm

OpenBSD switched their default shell to their own pdksh-derivative known as oksh.

https://github.com/ibara/oksh

There was an effort to (re)start ksh93 development, but AT&T halted this effort. The bugfixes from the failed effort have moved back into Korn's last release.

https://github.com/ksh93/ksh/tree/dev