I’m probably going to get downvoted to Hell and back, but someone’s gotta say it: that’s a git problem, not Windows.
First of all, I agree that case-insensitive file systems suck. It makes things inconsistent, especially from a development standpoint.
But, everyone has known that Windows (and macOS) use case insensitive file systems. At least for Windows, it always has been that way.
Git was written in Linux, which uses a case sensitive file system. So it’s no surprise that its internals use case insensitive storage. Someone ported it over to Windows, and I’m sure they knew about the file system differences. They could’ve taken that into account for file systems that are case insensitive, but chose not to do anything to safe guard Windows users.
But until the day that somebody fixes Git, everybody who is not using case sensitive file systems needs to care more about how they name things (and make sure their team does too). Because fuck everyone else, right?
The issue isn’t just a simple oversight. Git includes the file name as part of the tree and commit hash. The hash has security implications. There’s really no way to make the hash support case insensitivity without opening up a multitude of holes there. So there will always be a mismatch, and you can’t just fix it without changing how git works from the ground up.
Of course you can, make it lowercase internally and store the case formatted string for output.
That’d break git repos where files with the same name, but different case exist.
Well … everyone using case insensitive FSs need to worry how they name stuff anyway.
Absolutly. And they can just mount the git store using another filesystem. Would be the by far easiest solution.
Or use OS’s where case sensitive FS’s are the default. The ones I have in mind are much better for programming anyway…
“I’m probably going to get downvoted to Hell and back, but someone’s gotta say it: that’s a git problem, not Windows.”
Beware neckbeards with pitchforks.
It’s not even actually that bad, at least not since January of 2020: https://stackoverflow.com/a/59687740/1858225
That’s called a workaround. No end user should have to rely on a workaround as a solution to a bug; and make no mistake, it’s a bug.
Yes. Thankfully in my experience I’ve only dealt with this once or twice. But it’s a pita every time.
I’ve tried switching macOS to a case sensitive file system, but not all programs can handle it (at the time it was Photoshop).
I never understood this. I’ve been using macOS for a long, long time but in Terminal with either bash or zsh it’s always been as picky as Linux/other UNIX systems with casing.
Even in Finder if you navigate to a directory by path you have to use the proper case.
Am I missing something? I haven’t manually chosen a case-sensitive filesystem, but I sure would if it didn’t already seem case-sensitive.
that’s a git problem, not Windows.
I use Git, and I don’t use Windows. I have no problems. Sounds like… a Windows problem?
