Why is Linux/Ubuntu case-sensitive?

[Musky Melon]

These are both things I considered, and never did because it might screw up the system. If you're an application that expects things to be a certain way, because you know that it's not allowed to be any other way, would it mess you up if I changed things on you?

There are many other ways, all carrying with them the problems that all 'workarounds' do.

Any design that facilitates the need of workarounds because they're restricting the power of the user is a bad design.

It doesn't mess anything up. It's just Finder trying to be protective towards lesser users (who in all probability aren't going to redirect Documents to other drives) but there is still a method to accomplish your goal and the method requires a deliberate act from the user. As such these aren't really "workarounds".

Anyway, back to the case-sensitivity. I just view it as a nicety. Given that there really isn't a good reason to have two files of the same exact name being case-insensitive means I don't have to remember the casing convention and I avoid the issue of programs or imported files from other systems changing the case and thus creating a new file. It just makes the whole thing less annoying. In short it makes things easier which is inline with the ultimate purpose of using a computer.

[3rdalbum]

Isn't it because Unix was case-sensitive, and Linux is designed to be as close to Unix as possible?

[Dr. C]

The real question should be why is Windows not case sensitive? Non case sensitive OSs arose form backwards compatibility with Teletypes and Punch Cards which originated in the 1900's and 1890's respectively.

When Unix arose in the 1960's it was a modern operating system in its day and was case sensitive. GNU / Linux as a much more modern Unix clone is also case sensitive. By the way one can make recent versions of Windows case sensitive by a registry change and this is necessary to run applications like Apache for example.

As for helping users it makes much more sense to have computers behave as common languages where A and a are different characters than to accommodate technologies that are over 100 years old.

[K-bear]

The real question should be why is Windows not case sensitive? Non case sensitive OSs arose form backwards compatibility with Teletypes and Punch Cards which originated in the 1900's and 1890's respectively.

When Unix arose in the 1960's it was a modern operating system in its day and was case sensitive. GNU / Linux as a much more modern Unix clone is also case sensitive. By the way one can make recent versions of Windows case sensitive by a registry change and this is necessary to run applications like Apache for example.

As for helping users it makes much more sense to have computers behave as common languages where A and a are different characters than to accommodate technologies that are over 100 years old.

Windows is case sensitive, only file compares are not which you'd realise had you bothered to read the thread. The whole 'Windows is based on 100 year old tech lolzorz' angle you've come up with is just mindless fanboyism that only serves to damage Linux' reputation among the knowledgeable.

There are pros and cons to each approach but acting like it's because Windows still uses the equivalent of punch cards is intellectually dishonest.

[RiceMonster]

Windows is case sensitive, only file compares are not which you'd realise had you bothered to read the thread. The whole 'Windows is based on 100 year old tech lolzorz' angle you've come up with is just mindless fanboyism that only serves to damage Linux' reputation among the knowledgeable.

There are pros and cons to each approach but acting like it's because Windows still uses the equivalent of punch cards is intellectually dishonest.

Ummm... he/she said that was the reason why OSes were originally case sensitive, and thus it doesn't make sense anymore, not "lol windows uses punch cards lol". It was a valid point towards case-sensitivity, not really mindless Windows bashing. As you can see, he/she said it's possible to make Windows case sensitive.

[ssam]

If you want case insensitive bash completion run

echo "set completion-ignore-case on" >>~/.inputrc

note: the above command is case sensitive

there are a whole bunch of other issues with filenames on unix http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/fixin...filenames.html though i am not sure if they are really big enough issues to worry about.

[sjatkins]

I'm just curious why Ubuntu and Linux in general is case-sensitive? I can see a very good reason for having a case-insensitive file system though: less confusion!

Why in the world wouldn't it be case-sensitive? Filenames are strings. Case-sensitivity is built in expected feature of strings in most settings. So why make an exception for file names?

I hate it that in OS X for instance SCS tools by default think there has been a change to files simply because OS X is by default case-insensitive. What an absolutely dumb idea. If I wanted myCoolFile and MyCoolFile to be the same thing then I would have given them the same name.

This is a throwback to when filesystems (and OSes) were less capable. It is not a freaking feature regardless of the fanboys for systems that still support this broken behavior. And if software out there depends on case-insensitivity then that software is broken and in need of repair.

[QIII]

This is a very, very old thread.

If a post is older than a year or so and hasn't had a new reply in that time, instead of replying to it, create a new thread. In the software world, a lot can change in a very short time, and doing things this way makes it more likely that you will find the best information. You may link to the original discussion in the new thread if you think it may be helpful.

Thanks,


QIII

[sisco311]

oLD tHREAD cLOSED.