[h-e-w] Re: Case-sensitivity of filenames under NT, in VC

[Jeff Rancier]

Actually,  the odd host (IBM 4690, with FlexOS as the underlying OS) has all
the filenames in all caps.  The FTP client just preserved the case.
Jef

----- Original Message -----
From: "Eli Zaretskii" <address@hidden>
To: "Andre Spiegel" <address@hidden>
Cc: "Jeff Rancier" <address@hidden>; "Emacs Help (Windows)"
<address@hidden>
Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2002 8:36 AM
Subject: Re: Case-sensitivity of filenames under NT, in VC


>
> On 12 Jun 2002, Andre Spiegel wrote:
>
> > > (case-fold-search (not (memq system-type '(ms-dos windows-nt))))
> >
> > I hesitate to install this.  Wouldn't it be a cleaner solution if Emacs
> > always used the real filenames internally, and not a down-cased
> > version?
>
> I believe Emacs should treat file names as the underlying filesystem
> does.
>
> > What is the rationale for that?
>
> Evidently, some Windows tools (the ftp client, in this case) have a
> misfeature whereby they change the letter-case of the file names when
> they copy the files.
>
> > If this can't be avoided, then is it always guaranteed that filenames
> > are case-insensitive under DOS/NT?
>
> Yes, it's guaranteed.
>
> > Couldn't you "mount" a Unix
> > filesystem and have case-sensitive filenames there?
>
> I'm not aware of such a mount command.  I think it cannot exist, since it
> will break many Windows programs.
>
> > What if DOS/NT
> > changes so that filenames become case-sensitive there, too?
>
> I don't think this is a real danger.  Too many things on Windows depend
> on case-insensitivity.
>
> > Or,
> > alternatively, aren't there other architectures (e.g. VMS) where
> > filenames are case-insensitive as well?
>
> VMS is another case, yes.
>
> > To sum up, the above solution looks like a hack to me and I'd rather
> > look for something cleaner.
>
> I don't think it's a hack: Windows doesn't treat the letter-case in file
> names as significant.  It is IMHO a bug in Emacs that it compares file
> names case-sensitively on Windows.
>
> A better solution is to fix all the programs out there which futz with
> letter-case in file names, but that doesn't sound like a practical way.