Re: [Mingw-msys] Why is diff sensitive to case of filenames?

["Suresh Govindachar" <sgovindachar@xxxxxxxxx>]

   Keith Marshall wrote:
  > On Fri, 2007-09-28 at 19:14 -0700, Suresh Govindachar wrote:
  >>
  >> the diff in the latest diffutils-2.8.7-MSYS-1.0.11-snapshot.tar.bz2
  >> is sensitive to the case of filenames...
  >
  > That would be a bug, then.  Please file a report.

  I filed the report but there was some concern that a diff that was
  case insensitive to file names might cause problems.  I ran some
  experiments that indicate that such concerns are in fact unfounded.

  Set Up:  
  ------
  
  A) /n/Cell is a samba-mount.  I went into Linux and created
     identical files in that directory foo and foO.

  B) On my PC, I have MSYS' case sensitive diff and also UnxUtils' 
     case insensitive diff named as uudiff.  

        /n/Cell$ which diff
        /bin/diff
        /n/Cell$ diff --version
        diff (GNU diffutils) 2.8.7
        Written by Paul Eggert, Mike Haertel, David Hayes,
        Richard Stallman, and Len Tower.
        
        Copyright (C) 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
        This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
        warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

        /n/Cell$ which uudiff
        /c/opt/uu/usr/local/wbin/uudiff
        /n/Cell$ uudiff --version
        diff - GNU diffutils version 2.7
        /n/Cell$
        
  Experiment done on Windows XP laptop:
  ------------------------------------
    /n/Cell$ ls f*
    foO  foo
    /n/Cell$ diff -s foo foO
    Files foo and foO are identical
    /n/Cell$ uudiff -s foo foO
    Files foo and foO are identical
    /n/Cell$ mkdir a
    /n/Cell$ mkdir b
    /n/Cell$ cd a
    /n/Cell/a$ echo hello > foo
    /n/Cell/a$ cp foo ../b/FOO
    /n/Cell/a$ cd ..
    /n/Cell$ diff -sqr a b
    Only in b: FOO
    Only in a: foo
    /n/Cell$ uudiff -sqr a b
    Files a\foo and b\FOO are identical

    Then I went back to linux:  diff -sqr a b reports a/foo and
    b/FOO as "Only in " files.

  So there should be no problem with deploying a diff that is case
  insensitive -- the Operating System takes care of such issues
  transparently.  And having a case sensitive diff in a case
  insensitive OS prevents the case insensitive OS from doing its
  job. 
    
  --Suresh 



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