Re: [PATCH] Demonstrate failure of 'core.ignorecase = true'

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 22, 2012, 20:37 UTC
Message-ID: <7vk42cwew5.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <4F6B84DF.8040806@in.waw.pl>

Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek  <zbyszek@in.waw.pl> writes:

> Even this updated text does not say _what_ happens when
> core.ignorecase is set on a case-insensitive filesystem.

That was very much on purpose. We tell users not to do that, because it is calling for an undefined behaviour. And leaving it undefined gives us a wiggle room to later do something better if we choose to.

> Maybe:
> --- 8< ---
> When set, case-insensitive comparisons will be used when internally
> comparing file names.

When we try to create a new file with open("./Makefile", O_CREAT) system call, we do not opendir(".") and readdir() to see if "makefile" exists ourselves at all, but the above makes it sound as if we would do such things to make sure we compare filenames ignoring there case.

That is *not* what happens, and that is not what we want to say in the documentation.