Mac, git, and case insensitive file systems

git
1

Any good solution for ensuring that changing the case of a file name on a Mac results in the proper name change within git?

I got bit by some code that works on my Mac, but not on Heroku, due to changing the case of a file name.

The work around fix is to do something like:

git mv ToolTip.jsx tool TooltipXXX.jsx
git mv TooltipXXX.jsx Tooltip.jsx
git commit

Note, I’d rather have to remember to do the git mv trick than switch to a case sensitive file system on the Mac.

2

You need to make sure your file system on the mac is case sensitive HFS+. I don’t know if you can do it without reformatting your HDD though…

3

@Kaz, that’s the sort of thing I definitely don’t want do, changing my Mac file system. Too bad that this cannot be fixed at the git configuration level.

4

Yeah, it too bad the mac default is case insensitive file systems which really break it’s posix core. That’s the first thing I do when I buy a box is reformat. And since git just watches files the OS file system routines, there is not much you can do there to handle the conflict without adding a lot of complexity to git which would just piss Linus off :wink:

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