threads / discuss / 32003

Set core.ignorecase globally

Subject: Set core.ignorecase globally

## tl;dr

4 messages between Nov 2, 2012 and Nov 2, 2012.

replies: 3people: 3as markdown or json

Kirill Likhodedov· Nov 2, 2012, 14:39 UTC · lore

Hi,

Currently, core.ignorecase is set to true on case insensitive system like Windows or Mac on `git init` and `git clone`, and this setting is local to the created/cloned repository. Here is the man entry:

core.ignorecase
           If true, this option enables various workarounds to enable git to work better on filesystems that are
           not case sensitive, like FAT. For example, if a directory listing finds "makefile" when git expects
           "Makefile", git will assume it is really the same file, and continue to remember it as "Makefile".

           The default is false, except git-clone(1) or git-init(1) will probe and set core.ignorecase true if
           appropriate when the repository is created.

I suggest to set this globally by default when Git is installed, because there is little sense to have this option false on case insensitive systems (it will lead to confusions when renaming a file by changing only the case of letters).

---------------------------------- Kirill Likhodedov JetBrains, Inc http://www.jetbrains.com "Develop with pleasure!"

Konstantin Khomoutov· Nov 2, 2012, 15:03 UTC · re: Kirill Likhodedov · lore

Re: Set core.ignorecase globally

On Fri, 2 Nov 2012 18:39:26 +0400 Kirill Likhodedov <Kirill.Likhodedov@jetbrains.com> wrote:

> Currently, core.ignorecase is set to true on case insensitive system
> like Windows or Mac on `git init` and `git clone`, and this setting
> is local to the created/cloned repository.

[...]

> I suggest to set this globally by default when Git is installed,
> because there is little sense to have this option false on case
> insensitive systems (it will lead to confusions when renaming a file
> by changing only the case of letters).

Case sensitivity is a property of a file system, not the OS. What if I mount a device with ext3 file system via ext2fsd driver in on my Windows workstation? extN have POSIX semantics so it's pointless to enforce case insensitivity on them. The same possibly applies to NFS mounts.

Also note that NTFS (at least by default) is case insensitive but is case preserving, observe:

C:\tmp>dir /b foo

C:\tmp>rename foo Foo

C:\tmp>dir /b Foo

C:\tmp>del fOO

C:\tmp>dir /b

C:\tmp>ver

Microsoft Windows XP [Версия 5.1.2600]

I don't really know what to make out of this, but I'd not change the defaults until the reasons to do this are not really pressing (and they're not for now).

Konstantin Khomoutov· Nov 2, 2012, 15:15 UTC · re: Konstantin Khomoutov · lore

Re: Set core.ignorecase globally

On Fri, 2 Nov 2012 19:03:37 +0400 Konstantin Khomoutov <flatworm@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:

Show 17 quoted lines

> > Currently, core.ignorecase is set to true on case insensitive system
> > like Windows or Mac on `git init` and `git clone`, and this setting
> > is local to the created/cloned repository.
> [...]
> > I suggest to set this globally by default when Git is installed,
> > because there is little sense to have this option false on case
> > insensitive systems (it will lead to confusions when renaming a file
> > by changing only the case of letters). 
> 
> Case sensitivity is a property of a file system, not the OS.
> What if I mount a device with ext3 file system via ext2fsd driver in
> on my Windows workstation?  extN have POSIX semantics so it's
> pointless to enforce case insensitivity on them.  The same possibly
> applies to NFS mounts.
> 
> Also note that NTFS (at least by default) is case insensitive but is
> case preserving, observe:

[...]

On the other hand, on NTFS, if I unset core.ignorecase or set it to false locally, `git mv foo Foo` fails to rename a tracked file "foo" with the "destination file exists" error. I would say I would expect it to work under the conditions I've just described. Not sure if this thould be considered a bug in Git for Windows or not -- would be great to hear opinions of the msysgit port developers.

Torsten Bögershausen· Nov 2, 2012, 20:05 UTC · re: Konstantin Khomoutov · lore

Re: Set core.ignorecase globally

Am 2012-11-02 16:15, schrieb Konstantin Khomoutov:

Show 28 quoted lines

> On Fri, 2 Nov 2012 19:03:37 +0400
> Konstantin Khomoutov <flatworm@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:
>
>>> Currently, core.ignorecase is set to true on case insensitive system
>>> like Windows or Mac on `git init` and `git clone`, and this setting
>>> is local to the created/cloned repository.
>> [...]
>>> I suggest to set this globally by default when Git is installed,
>>> because there is little sense to have this option false on case
>>> insensitive systems (it will lead to confusions when renaming a file
>>> by changing only the case of letters).
>>
>> Case sensitivity is a property of a file system, not the OS.
>> What if I mount a device with ext3 file system via ext2fsd driver in
>> on my Windows workstation?  extN have POSIX semantics so it's
>> pointless to enforce case insensitivity on them.  The same possibly
>> applies to NFS mounts.
>>
>> Also note that NTFS (at least by default) is case insensitive but is
>> case preserving, observe:
> [...]
>
> On the other hand, on NTFS, if I unset core.ignorecase or set it to
> false locally, `git mv foo Foo` fails to rename a tracked file "foo"
> with the "destination file exists" error.  I would say I would expect it
> to work under the conditions I've just described.  Not sure if this
> thould be considered a bug in Git for Windows or not -- would be great
> to hear opinions of the msysgit port developers.

I once made a patch for git and we concluded that is is not worth to put that into main git because you always can do:

git mv foo tmp && git mv tmp Foo or git mv -f foo Foo

(But use the -f option with care) /Torsten