Re: Git, Mac OS X and German special characters

From: Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se>
Date: Oct 1, 2011, 13:39 UTC
Message-ID: <4E87182C.8050201@op5.se>
In-Reply-To: <CAO1Q+jf=RO=sE90-mQdi+=fUWH1RLM+JTubSgSVGC5uDyhU+2A@mail.gmail.com>

On 10/01/2011 07:44 AM, Albert Zeyer wrote:

Show 20 quoted lines

> Hi,
> 
> There are problems on MacOSX with different UTF8 encodings of
> filenames. A unicode string has multiple ways to be represented as
> UTF8 and Git treats them as different filenames. This is the actual
> bug. It should treat them all as the same filename. In some cases (as
> on MacOSX), the underlying operating system may use a normalized UTF8
> representation in some sort, i.e. change the actual UTF8 filename
> representation.
> 
> Similar problems also exists in SVN, for example. This was reported
> [here](http://subversion.tigris.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2464).
> There you can find also lengthy discussions about the topic. And also
> [here](http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/subversion/trunk/notes/unicode-composition-for-filenames).
> 
> This was already reported for Git earlier and there is also a patch
> for Git [here](http://lists-archives.org/git/719832-git-mac-os-x-and-german-special-characters.html).
> 
> I wonder about the state of this. This hasn't been applied yet. Why?
>

Because the patch didn't address repositories carrying files with more than one possible representation of the filename and that could have lead to silent loss of data for unsuspecting users.

The real solution to your problem is, unfortunately, to either use a different and more competent filesystem, or to avoid triggering the bugs in the one you're currently using.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson@op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231

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