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

[Jeff Rancier]

Thank you again Francis.  I indeed had w32-downcase-file-names set to true.
I reverted vc-cvs-registered(), and voila.  Things work as expected.  Thanks
Andre & Eli.

Jeff

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr Francis J. Wright" <address@hidden>
To: "Eli Zaretskii" <address@hidden>; "Andre Spiegel" <address@hidden>
Cc: "Jeff Rancier" <address@hidden>; "Emacs Help (Windows)"
<address@hidden>
Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2002 9:39 AM
Subject: Re: [h-e-w] Re: Case-sensitivity of filenames under NT, in VC


> 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 1:36 PM
> Subject: [h-e-w] Re: Case-sensitivity of filenames under NT, in VC
>
>
> > I believe Emacs should treat file names as the underlying filesystem
> > does.
>
> I thought it did, unless w32-downcase-file-names is set; by default it is
> unset.
>
> > > 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.
>
> Most standard Windows programs ignore case in file names, but the MS ftp
> client doesn't change case.
>
> > > If this can't be avoided, then is it always guaranteed that filenames
> > > are case-insensitive under DOS/NT?
> >
> > Yes, it's guaranteed.
>
> I thought that MS filesystems preserve case, and it's up to an application
> whether or not it ignores it.  MS applications usually ignore case; ports
> from UNIX usually respect case.
>
> > > 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.
>
> I haven't done this recently, but IIRC if you mount a UNIX filesystem
using
> Samba then it depends on the application whether or not it respects
filename
> case, just as for a local filesystem.
>
> > > 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.
>
> I agree.  But presumably applications will always be able to ignore
filename
> case if they want.
>
> > > 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.
>
> I think you might have contradicted yourself here.  If you really mean
that
> then doesn't setting w32-downcase-file-names fix this "bug"?  And if you
> mean the opposite, then I thought that was what happened; otherwise, it's
> not clear what w32-downcase-file-names is for.
>
> Francis