Re: [PATCH 18/18] alternates: use fspathcmp to detect duplicates

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Oct 5, 2016, 03:54 UTC
Message-ID: <20161005035447.xdnmilecg6p2uqrp@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <20161005023455.GA6215@pug.qqx.org>

On Tue, Oct 04, 2016 at 10:34:55PM -0400, Aaron Schrab wrote:

Show 9 quoted lines

> At 16:36 -0400 03 Oct 2016, Jeff King <peff@peff.net> wrote:
> > On a case-insensitive filesystem, we should realize that
> > "a/objects" and "A/objects" are the same path.
> 
> The current repository being on a case-insensitive filesystem doesn't
> guarantee that the alternates are as well.
> 
> On the other hand, I suspect that people who use a case-insensitive
> filesystem would be less likely to use names which differ only by case.

True. I don't think we actually have enough information to make the correct comparison (not only that, but I think that fspathcmp() can sometimes be fooled by a path which is only partially case-insensitive due to a case-insensitive filesystem mounted on a case-sensitive one).

Still, I think in practice this is likely to do more good than harm, as I'd guess that being on a single filesystem is the common case.

-Peff