Re: Case Insensitive File Systems -- Torvalds Hates Them

On 29/04/2025 15:18, Borax Man wrote:

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.misc.]
On 2025-04-28, Farley Flud <ff@linux.rocks> wrote:

On Mon, 28 Apr 2025 11:12:42 -0700, John Ames wrote:
>

>
Just so, it seems to me. Of course it's many years too late for *nix to
course-correct on this, but it was a stupid design decision in 1970 and
it remains stupid now. Well, such is the nature of things in this vale
of sin and tears...
>

>
Case insensitivity was only idiotic at the beginning, but now, in the
age of Unicode, it is supremely idiotic.
>
Consider the German "sharp s," which I cannot enter as UTF-8 here.
>
But the lower case sharp s maps into TWO DIFFERENT upper case chars:
<can't enter> and "SS," e.g. STRASSE or <can't enter>.
>
There are special rules on case folding for thousands of Unicode chars
and the "sharp s" example is one of the simplest.
>
What about the files:
>
cat_scan_links.html
>
CAT_scan_links.html
>
To paraphrase Kipling:
>
Unix is Unix and Microslop is Microslop and never the twain should
meet.

 Consider when you move a file from a POSIX filesystem, to one which is
case insensitive, and you move it back.  I've had digger.zip and
DIGGER.ZIP because one verison once resided on an MSDOS partition.
 Issues arise when you interact with other systems which don't preserve
case.  Or archivers that may not.
 As for your file example though, you do demonstrate why one may choose
upper vs lower case, Windows does allow that.  But should they be
*seperate* files?  You are asking for trouble putting both files like
that in one directory.  I'd never do it.  The system lets you do it, but
you shouldn't.
 

Wait till you have a MacIntosh which traditionally was case insensitive but can allow case sensitivity.
Except the program you want to run  is random and arbitrary in its use of filenames. It will call e.g file. dot FILE.dot File.dot and FiLe.DOT all from within the same code.
There is nothing wrong with case sensitivity provided its a standard that is adhered to
The moaners are usually people who have grown up lazy on DOS/OS-9 O/X and expect the OS to cover up for  sloppy bad habits

However, I agree with your comment about unicode.  Treating upper and
lower case letters as the same, leads to complicated rules, which may
vary from system to system, and cause chaos.  Case sensitivity, perhaps
is the lesser of two evils here.

--
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
– H. L. Mencken, American journalist, 1880-1956