I honestly don’t even understand the joke. Case-insensitive file names cause problems, but what does that have to do with version control branch names?
Inside git’s internal plumbing folder, git holds a file with the branch name and all of the references (files and changes) for that branch.
When you make a new branch git will update its internal plumbing checking to see if the new branch already exists, updates its references to the new branch if it doesn’t (all held internally in a case sensitive way). It will then make that new branch file, git has already checked that the case senitive name for the branch doesn’t exist internally, so it should be good to go.
Part of its process is creating that internal branch file… But wait!
Windows doesn’t have case sensitive naming so when it tries to make that new branch file it will overwrite the old one (since it shouldn’t exist by git’s own reference!) All of the files and references for it now get nuked.
Now you’re at best back to wherever that originally named branch came from, at worse your .git folder is properly borked.
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.
Well … everyone using case insensitive FSs need to worry how they name stuff 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 a git problem, not Windows.
I use Git, and I don’t use Windows. I have no problems. Sounds like… a Windows problem?
Huh. I had forgotten that git does actually create a file with the branch name. But it doesn’t actually screw up the .git folder or lose your data when you try to do a rename like this; it just rejects the rename unless you also use the “force” option. This has been the case since at least January of 2020. But apparently it actually doesn’t always use a local file for branch names, so sometimes there’s a problem and sometimes there isn’t, which I guess is arguably worse than just having consistently-surprising behavior.
Whenever I develop on Windows, I just use the built in Linux.
I got a Mac at work because the Linux on Mac didn’t suck as much as the Linux on windows (docker).
My 8 years old mid range PC beats both to dust on development using the Linux on Linux, but somehow the bosses don’t value my time.
it’s not that they don’t value your time, it’s that they value security compliance checklists over productivity.
in the same boat myself. Told them the same. practicality begged them to allow me to use docker otherwise tasks would balloon from an hour to complete to literal days.
after two weeks of discussion they finally relented. Probably cost the company $50-70k in those two weeks in salaries alone when you include the entire dev team, IT, security, compliance, and mgmt.
it’s amazing that this shitshow called capitalism is still functioning.
Technically the “Linux on Mac” is Unix based and not Linux, but I agree the dev experience is nicer on my Mac than Windows given the choice. Also rather than docker you can use the WSL stuff on Windows for a much closer to normal Linux dev setup (with a few weird edges).
I end up regularly using all three OSes, so it’s helpful you can finally get a serviceable dev environment on any of the common non-mobile OSes now.
I meant using a linux VM to run docker (With Rancher Desktop).
WSL started eating RAM like if there’s was no tomorrow for no reason, even when idle. And considering we had to run memory and cpu intensive tasks, that was a big problem. Several colleges saw the same issue and we all ended up moving to Mac for that reason (well, some of them just because “shiny”).
I’m aware, though there’s some nice integration stuff that means you can run GUI applications and share the file system
Interesting fact WSLv1 was actually not a VM and it was the NT kernel speaking POSIX
I understand the joke, but I never had to change the name of a branch because of a wrong upper/lower case character. Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever even renamed a branch. Only matters when you create the PR.
Windows has had the ability to flag individual directories as case-sensitive for a few years now. It’s… something, I guess.
Also, why is the website for the original comic crossed out? It wasn’t completely cropped out or hidden like most asshats do, but it wasn’t left alone either. Someone deliberately went out of their way to vandalize it but did it in perhaps the most pointless possible way? I don’t understand people sometimes.
My main struggle on Windows is checking in executable files. I keep forgetting the command whenever i have to add a shell script to the project.
