file/dir name case (in)sensitivity

[Ryan Schmidt]

On May 6, 2016, at 12:51 PM, René J.V. Bertin wrote:

> On Friday May 06 2016 17:42:14 Clemens Lang wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
>> Our buildbots use case-sensitive filesystems, so you should be able to
>> use binary packages for both case-insensitive machines (the
>> configuration most people are probably using) and case-sensitive
>> environments (because that already works fine on the buildbots).
> 
> Binary packages prepared on a case-sensitive system work fine on case-insensitive only if they contain a package that doesn't assume it'll be installed on a case-sensitive and that it can thus pull tricks like installing
> 
> include/Attica/Provider
> include/attica/provider.h

Software should not do this because it is confusing. If you find software that does this, work with its developers to change their software not to do this.


> this doesn't raise errors during the install because you'll end up with a directory include/attica that contains files Provider and provider.h, but a source file that does `#include <Attica/Provider>` will encounter a compiler error because include/Attica/Provider won't be found.

Are you sure this generates an error on a case-insensitive filesystem? I thought it would "just work" since the filesystem shouldn't care about the case. I tried a similar test case on my system just now and it worked fine.


> Side-note: the binary packages aren't always perfect; a while back we ran into one that looked as if it had been (re)generated on a case-insensitive filesystem. I don't recall which one it was ATM; it was surely KDE related and the issue was discussed on trac or at least the ML.

The buildbots are and have always been on case-sensitive filesystems.