4 ms·

There are many options for case-insensitivity on Linux. The common one would be FAT, which can't handle symbolic links, so that is moot. There is also ext4 and

by chungy 6y ago

There are many options for case-insensitivity on Linux. The common one would be FAT, which can't handle symbolic links, so that is moot. There is also ext4 and ZFS that can have case-insensitive modes enabled (they aren't by default), which do support symbolic links. ntfs-3g also has an option to mount as case-insensitive (though said option can actually subtly break access to an NTFS volume, since NTFS itself is always case-sensitive and it's just the OS's VFS layer that pretends otherwise).

caslon 6y ago
Yes, but no sensible people use case-insensitivity on Linux, and the amount of other people that do in a relevant context can probably be measured with four digits.
- chungy 6y ago
  I have case-insensitivity enabled for DOSBox and Wine file systems. I've actually thought about converting my whole $HOME to that way, but I do have a few files that would conflict if I did that. I honestly don't think it's that bad of an idea.
  - nicoburns 6y ago
    Do you store code in $HOME. If so, I wouldn't recommend it. I have a case-sensitive partition on my macOS machine because I was bitten one too many times by code that worked fine on my development machine (case-insensitive file system) only to fail in production (case-sensitive file system).
    - chungy 6y ago
      That would indeed be one reason (aside from sheer time) I've avoided doing it fully.
- JeremyNT 6y ago
  I've had git repositories on vfat formatted usb drives before. This isn't something I do with much frequency but it's not that exotic of a use case. There's also the possibility of a git repo on a SMB share. That's not a use case I have, but it's not too difficult to imagine in a corporate environment.
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago
  May I ask why? Case sensitivity is one of the things that really bothers me on Linux, it causes me to make mistakes for no reason. If I ever really switched to Linux full-time, I’d probably want to change that.
  - caslon 6y ago
    Because case insensitivity causes ambiguity and complexity for no meaningful benefit, and more often than not causes problems like in the post. This isn't a "Linux" thing for me; every UNIX and POSIX system that has been well-designed with the exception of Snow Leopard has had case sensitivity.
    - goatinaboat 6y ago
      every UNIX and POSIX system that has been well-designed Case sensitivity wasn’t designed; the first Unix couldn’t spare the CPU cycles to do case insensitive matching, which was the norm at the time.
      - caslon 6y ago
        And yet nearly every UNIX system that was well-designed isn't case insensitive. I was pointing out correlation, not causation.
        Wowfunhappy 6y ago
        How many case-insensitive UNIX systems are there? I’m not sure you have enough data points here. :P
    - emodendroket 6y ago
      The benefit seems pretty clear to me. Users do not generally consider uppercase and lowercase versions of the letter completely distinct. The use cases for identical file names with different cases would seem quite limited.
  - memorysafety 6y ago
brundolf 6y ago
The exploit can also be done with (case-sensitive) Unicode file names. All it requires is that git thinks two paths are distinct, while the file system thinks they're equivalent

by chungy 6y ago

caslon 6y ago

Yes, but no sensible people use case-insensitivity on Linux, and the amount of other people that do in a relevant context can probably be measured with four digits.

chungy 6y ago
I have case-insensitivity enabled for DOSBox and Wine file systems. I've actually thought about converting my whole $HOME to that way, but I do have a few files that would conflict if I did that. I honestly don't think it's that bad of an idea.
- nicoburns 6y ago
  Do you store code in $HOME. If so, I wouldn't recommend it. I have a case-sensitive partition on my macOS machine because I was bitten one too many times by code that worked fine on my development machine (case-insensitive file system) only to fail in production (case-sensitive file system).
  - chungy 6y ago
    That would indeed be one reason (aside from sheer time) I've avoided doing it fully.
JeremyNT 6y ago
I've had git repositories on vfat formatted usb drives before. This isn't something I do with much frequency but it's not that exotic of a use case. There's also the possibility of a git repo on a SMB share. That's not a use case I have, but it's not too difficult to imagine in a corporate environment.
Wowfunhappy 6y ago
May I ask why? Case sensitivity is one of the things that really bothers me on Linux, it causes me to make mistakes for no reason. If I ever really switched to Linux full-time, I’d probably want to change that.
- caslon 6y ago
  Because case insensitivity causes ambiguity and complexity for no meaningful benefit, and more often than not causes problems like in the post. This isn't a "Linux" thing for me; every UNIX and POSIX system that has been well-designed with the exception of Snow Leopard has had case sensitivity.
  - goatinaboat 6y ago
    every UNIX and POSIX system that has been well-designed Case sensitivity wasn’t designed; the first Unix couldn’t spare the CPU cycles to do case insensitive matching, which was the norm at the time.
    - caslon 6y ago
      And yet nearly every UNIX system that was well-designed isn't case insensitive. I was pointing out correlation, not causation.
      - Wowfunhappy 6y ago
        How many case-insensitive UNIX systems are there? I’m not sure you have enough data points here. :P
  - emodendroket 6y ago
    The benefit seems pretty clear to me. Users do not generally consider uppercase and lowercase versions of the letter completely distinct. The use cases for identical file names with different cases would seem quite limited.
- memorysafety 6y ago

brundolf 6y ago

The exploit can also be done with (case-sensitive) Unicode file names. All it requires is that git thinks two paths are distinct, while the file system thinks they're equivalent