On Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 9:34 AM Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Bryan Turner <bturner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > > > Git on Windows is not designed to run with anything other than > > core.ignoreCase=true, and attempting to do so will cause unexpected > > behavior. > > Even though I fully agree with your conclusion that the document > must make it crystal clear that core.ignoreCase must be set to > reflect the reality, I found the above statement misleading and do > not want it to be used as the basis of a documentation update. But > it is possible that I am misunderstanding the current state of > affairs. > > Is the case insensitivity that deeply ingrained in the Git for > Windows code? > > IOW, even if the code used to build Git for Windows were executed on > a case sensitive filesystem, is there a case-smashing code on _our_ > side that kicks in to cause unexpected behaviour, _even_ when > core.ignorecase is set to false to match (hypothetical) reality? > > To put it yet another way, if a case sensitive filesystem were > available, wouldn't running "git init" from Git for Windows in a > directory on such a filesytem set core.ignoreCase to false in the > resulting repository and from then on wouldn't everything work fine? > > If my suspicion (i.e. the code for Git for Windows is perfectly > fine---it is just the users are not running with case sensitive > filesystems and flipping core.ignoreCase to true does not make case > incapable filesystems suddenly capable) is correct, then it is not > "Git on Windows is not designed to run" from two angles. (1) it is > not just Git for Windows---Git running on UNIX that mounts VFAT, or > Git running on macOS with default HFS+, would exhibit the same > symptom, and (2) it is not "Git is not designed to run"---it is > core.ignoreCase that is not designed to be a way to make case > incapable filesystems suddenly capable of distinguishing cases in > filesystems. Apologies for the unclear word choice. Given Git was designed first to work with case-sensitive filesystems, certainly the obvious (and correct) conclusion is that Git itself is fine in a case-sensitive environment. It wasn't my intention to suggest otherwise. Note that my word choice was not "Git _for_ Windows", however; it was "Git _on_ Windows". (This still doesn't change the correctness of your clarification, let me be quick to add. I'm only pointing it out because it's relevant to what I intended the comment to say.) On Windows, the default filesystem is NTFS, and NTFS is not case sensitive. Hence, Git on Windows (by which I'm implying Git on NTFS), is not designed to run with anything other than core.ignoreCase=true, because that setting aligns Git's expectations with how the underlying filesystem actually works. In other words, Git on a case-insensitive filesystem (APFS, HFS+, FAT32, exFAT, vFAT, NTFS, etc.) is not designed to be run with anything other than core.ignoreCase=true. Bryan > > Thanks.
