Linus Torvalds Expresses His Hatred for Case-Insensitive File-Systems

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linus-Torvalds-Anti-Case-Fold

15•Bender•9mo ago

Comments

PaulHoule•9mo ago

It's some kind of game theory game. If software and data is being transferred between Windows and Unix system it will be rare for Unix software to break on Windows, yet, Windows allow carelessness about capitalization which breaks when you round trip to Linux. Embrace, Extend, Exterminate, etc.

p_ing•9mo ago

Windows can be configured to have whole-volume case-sensitivity with NTFS, or even directory-specific case-sensitivity.

However, case-sensitivity is user-unfriendly. README.DOCX, Readme.docx, ReAdMe.DocX -- which document did they really want? When Jane Doe calls and tells John Doe to open the "readme" document, which one does she mean?

PaulHoule•9mo ago

If I ask the question of "would it be perverse to deliberately write code to systematically depending on case?" I think about coding 11001000 as 'AAaaAaaa' or instead of a random identifier written like 798951cb-9fa4-4ca6-9a36-6b098a9cbd25 you write likewise in more or less

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascii85

that last would be clever but unwise to write to the filesystem

p_ing•9mo ago

.ToUpper() .ToLower() I say.

Yes, you can find exceptions to the point of case-sensitivity is user-unfriendly. For developers, sure. For end users? It's always unfriendly.

Though there's nothing wrong with file names with GUIDs; SharePoint does it all the time ;-)

jasonthorsness•9mo ago

Case-insensitive helpers around a case-sensitive filenames are the best of both worlds. I don't want hello.txt to BE the same as Hello.txt, I just want to find it without using a capital letter. Thanks to this thread I just discovered <code>bind -s 'set completion-ignore-case on'</code> for bash which is going to make my life as someone who frequently switches between WSL2 and Windows cmd more pleasant.

betelgeuse6•9mo ago

Having both hello.txt and Hello.txt is bad design in the first place no matter how you view it.

daurentius523•9mo ago

"bad design" - It is not design just result of Unicode rules.

Mind you:

naïve.txt

naïve.txt

can both exist, because:

ï vs ï

0xC3AF vs 0x69CC88

is not same.

Linux does sane (secure) thing - does not care. If bytes are different - name is different.

Windows and mac don't solve this anyway.

Having only one of Α.txt, A.txt, a.txt is not, and was not, а option.

cranberryturkey•9mo ago

macOS also is case insensitive

joecool1029•9mo ago

Likewise Linus also considers HFS+ a piece of shit filesystem: https://archive.is/R5eWO

Recent news of Linux also considering removing the drivers for it: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-2025-Sad-State-HFS

p_ing•9mo ago

macOS hasn't used HFS+ as the default FS in what 10+ years?

APFS is case-insensitive by default. It can be formatted to be case-sensitive. I don't think you can change sensitivity on the fly like Windows.

cranberryturkey•9mo ago

No, I did re-install MacOS once and enabled case-sensitivity filesystem and photoshop stopped working.

p_ing•9mo ago

No what? That’s a 3rd party application. MacOS runs just fine with a case-sensitive file system.

BobbyTables2•9mo ago

Case sensitive OSes like Linux don’t mix well with case insensitive file systems.

Take files under /boot/EFI (FAT). Packaging systems fall down on such — two RPMs can have different cases of the same filename and the package manager won’t know. They’ll just subtly overwrite each others file depending on installation/upgrade order.

(And why should the package manager have to care about the case sensitivity of the underlying file system for each managed file?)

meitham•9mo ago

I grew to like case insensitive dbms like SQLServer as it makes me think less about casing when I write queries, but always wondered if that comes at cost of performance!

p_ing•9mo ago

Collation in a database determines case sensitivity in MSSQL. If the collation has "cs", it's case-sensitive. If it has "ci", it is case-insensitive.

Collation is configurable at the server level, but usually one goes for a _CI_ collation there (not much reason for master to be _CS_). Each user database can have it's own collation/case-sensitivity.

Ask HN: How much of your token use is fixing the bugs Claude Code causes?

Show HN: Agents – Sync MCP Configs Across Claude, Cursor, Codex Automatically

Hello

FSD helped save my father's life during a heart attack

Show HN: Writtte – Draft and publish articles without reformatting, anywhere

Portuguese icon (FROM A CAN) makes a simple meal (Canned Fish Files) [video]

Brookhaven Lab's RHIC Concludes 25-Year Run with Final Collisions

Transcribe your aunts post cards with Gemini 3 Pro

.72% Variance Lance

ReKindle – web-based operating system designed specifically for E-ink devices

Encrypt It

NextMatch – 5-minute video speed dating to reduce ghosting

Personalizing esketamine treatment in TRD and TRBD

SpaceKit.xyz – a browser‑native VM for decentralized compute

NotebookLM: The AI that only learns from you

Show HN: An open-source starter kit for developing with Postgres and ClickHouse

Game Boy Advance d-pad capacitor measurements

South Korean crypto firm accidentally sends $44B in bitcoins to users

Apache Poison Fountain

Web.whatsapp.com appears to be having issues syncing and sending messages

Google in Your Terminal

Shannon: Claude Code for Pen Testing: #1 on Github today

Anthropic: Latest Claude model finds more than 500 vulnerabilities

Brooklyn cemetery plans human composting option, stirring interest and debate

Why the 'Strivers' Are Right

Brain Dumps as a Literary Form

Agentic Coding and the Problem of Oracles

Malicious packages for dYdX cryptocurrency exchange empties user wallets

Show HN: I built a <400ms latency voice agent that runs on a 4gb vram GTX 1650"

Penisgate erupts at Olympics; scandal exposes risks of bulking your bulge

Ask HN: How much of your token use is fixing the bugs Claude Code causes?

Show HN: Agents – Sync MCP Configs Across Claude, Cursor, Codex Automatically

Hello

FSD helped save my father's life during a heart attack

Show HN: Writtte – Draft and publish articles without reformatting, anywhere

Portuguese icon (FROM A CAN) makes a simple meal (Canned Fish Files) [video]

Brookhaven Lab's RHIC Concludes 25-Year Run with Final Collisions

Transcribe your aunts post cards with Gemini 3 Pro

.72% Variance Lance

ReKindle – web-based operating system designed specifically for E-ink devices

Encrypt It

NextMatch – 5-minute video speed dating to reduce ghosting

Personalizing esketamine treatment in TRD and TRBD

SpaceKit.xyz – a browser‑native VM for decentralized compute

NotebookLM: The AI that only learns from you

Show HN: An open-source starter kit for developing with Postgres and ClickHouse

Game Boy Advance d-pad capacitor measurements

South Korean crypto firm accidentally sends $44B in bitcoins to users

Apache Poison Fountain

Web.whatsapp.com appears to be having issues syncing and sending messages

Google in Your Terminal

Shannon: Claude Code for Pen Testing: #1 on Github today

Anthropic: Latest Claude model finds more than 500 vulnerabilities

Brooklyn cemetery plans human composting option, stirring interest and debate

Why the 'Strivers' Are Right

Brain Dumps as a Literary Form

Agentic Coding and the Problem of Oracles

Malicious packages for dYdX cryptocurrency exchange empties user wallets

Show HN: I built a <400ms latency voice agent that runs on a 4gb vram GTX 1650"

Penisgate erupts at Olympics; scandal exposes risks of bulking your bulge

Linus Torvalds Expresses His Hatred for Case-Insensitive File-Systems

Comments