4 ms·

I believed busybox's grep to be faster as it was very small, with GNU version slower due to the many features added over the time, but it is quite not true! On

by josuah 10y ago

I believed busybox's grep to be faster as it was very small, with GNU version slower due to the many features added over the time, but it is quite not true! On a slow device as some evoked said, the difference is highly noticeable.

mcguire 10y ago
That's actually an important point. It's easy to misinterpret "The key to making programs fast is to make them do practically nothing." Busybox's grep is small and simple. GNU grep is big and complex, which is actually why it's faster. It does a lot of work to avoid doing a lot of work.
- josuah 10y ago
  Oh, so 'do practically nothing' rather than 'be practically nothing'. I understand now.