3 ms·

It would help if you tested just grep when benchmarking grep. These datapoints tell a much different story. # /usr/bin/grep -V grep (BSD grep) 2.6.0-FreeB

• wglb 8y ago
  That is a very good point. Taking this better approach, here is what I get on my (not updated grep) system: wgl:$ /usr/bin/grep --version /usr/bin/grep --version grep (BSD grep) 2.5.1-FreeBSD wgl:$ /usr/local/bin/ggrep --version /usr/local/bin/ggrep --version ggrep (GNU grep) 3.3 Packaged by Homebrew Copyright (C) 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Written by Mike Haertel and others; see <https://git.sv.gnu.org/cgit/grep.git/tree/AUTHORS>. wgl:$ /usr/bin/time /usr/local/bin/ggrep LiteonTe really-big.text | wc -l /usr/bin/time /usr/local/bin/ggrep LiteonTe really-big.text | wc -l 2.30 real 1.04 user 0.67 sys 1228 wgl:$ /usr/bin/time /usr/bin/grep LiteonTe really-big.text | wc -l /usr/bin/time /usr/bin/grep LiteonTe really-big.text | wc -l 5.65 real 5.30 user 0.33 sys 1228 wgl:$ /usr/bin/time /usr/local/bin/ggrep LiteonTe really-big.text >/dev/null /usr/bin/time /usr/local/bin/ggrep LiteonTe really-big.text >/dev/null 0.05 real 0.03 user 0.01 sys wgl:$ /usr/bin/time /usr/bin/grep LiteonTe really-big.text >/dev/null /usr/bin/time /usr/bin/grep LiteonTe really-big.text >/dev/null 6.50 real 5.71 user 0.58 sys wgl:$ /usr/bin/time /usr/local/bin/ggrep LiteonTe really-big.text -c /usr/bin/time /usr/local/bin/ggrep LiteonTe really-big.text -c 1228 2.33 real 1.05 user 0.69 sys wgl:$ /usr/bin/time /usr/bin/grep LiteonTe really-big.text -c /usr/bin/time /usr/bin/grep LiteonTe really-big.text -c 1228 5.37 real 5.05 user 0.31 sys The wc -l is clearly polluting the result. However, I suspect that the >/dev/null is as well. But in the worst case, I see a halving of time over the old grep (edited), which correlates with my most common use of grep in looking through source files.
  • GalacticDomin8r 8y ago
    Compiler is also going to make an impact which for me is consistent across both grep binaries. FreeBSD clang version 6.0.1 as well as -O2 I suspect there are still edge cases where BSD grep is quite a bit slower or not compatible with GNU grep. However with a closer apples to apples comparison there isn't much difference anymore for my usage. Which is a lot of grep use but that is pretty vanilla. There may also be other OS differences in our comparison. My tests where run against a fairly recent FreeBSD 12-STABLE.