Re: case sensitivity

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On Wed, May 22, 2002 at 12:12:46AM +0200, petter wahlman wrote:
> On Tue, 2002-05-21 at 22:19, Rodrigo Barbosa wrote:
> > Attention: RANT LEVEL set to 7.
> > 
> > On Tue, May 21, 2002 at 09:11:24PM +0200, petter wahlman wrote:
> > > So, why are 'linux' filesystems case sensitive?
> > 
> > I think the question is "Why is Windows case insensitive" ?
> Or OS/2 and Novel witch are some of the other OS's I share code with.

OS/2, Novel and Windows all shame the same historical codebase, that is,
PC-DOS. No surprise they all share the same behaviour.

> > Last time I checked with my language teacher (no matter what language),
> > "A" and "a" are not the same. So, we can reframe your question as
> > "Why do we have different cases for the same letter of the alphabet ?".
> > In that case, I really can't answer.
> Semantically speaking, I agree that 'A' != 'a'. The number of possible
> filenames are also gratly increased with case sensitivity.
> I would probably religously be against such a change if I did not
> experience the previously mentioned problems. 

But this problems you experience is easily solved. I can even code a
small script for you if you give me the details.

> > As for Linux, that is the way Unix is since the beginning, in the 60's.
> > And Linux is a Unix-like derivative. Other exemples include Solaris,
> > AIX, Irix, MacOSX, FreeBSD, bsd386, NetBSD, SunOS etc.
> I know, and can proably think of other examples, but that does not
> change the fact that the lack of such a feature causes problems.
> I do not think that changing the default behavior is the right think to
> do, though.

Good. So, what are our solutions ? If it is made a configurable behavious,
all programs would have to deal with that.

> > > Having two files or directories that only differ by case is IMO wrong,
> > > but should at least be controlable with a generic mount option.
> > Just becouse you don't like something does not make it wrong. I, for one,
> > use different cases for different functionalities. Lets say I have a
> > datafile (data.dat) I want to disable, but want to know what this file
> > is. I simply rename it to data.DAT, or Data.dat. The application will not
> > use it anymore, and I still know the correct name. That is one of several
> > possible uses.
> Wrong was probably a too strong word (i wanted to get some feedback on
> my post :), and can absolutely see the value of having the possibility
> you mention. 

Thanks.  At least you read about the "rant level" of the mail, before 
reading the rest of it :-)

> > You see, most people want to be able to control what a program (application,
> > OS etc) do, and not just put some crap in and hope the program will work
> > it's way. Old computer proverb: Garbage in, garbage out.
> > If you need to conver filename, you can easily do it with a onliner. Same
> > for file references inside a Makefile or anything else.
> No, it is not that easy. I do not have the permission to change the case
> on the include statements in all the source files I access, due to RO
> and locked files.
> It's not as easy as doing a 'find' ;)

So, change the name of the files. Also, easy to do with a oneliner :-)

And do understand your problem, but changing the VFS would only cause further
problems (curing a headache by cutting the head off). This problems should
be solved in userspace.

[]s

-- 
 Rodrigo Barbosa                   - rodrigob at tisbrasil.com.br
 TIS 				   - Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
 "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"  - http://www.tisbrasil.com.br/
 Brainbench Certified -> Transcript ID #3332104

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