Re: IA64 port

[Robert Millan <rmh@aybabtu.com>]

On Tue, Jan 29, 2008 at 03:46:50PM +0100, Marco Gerards wrote:
> In this case, FAT is modified so fit the need of EFI.  However, FAT is
> case insensitive.  On windows C:\FOO.TXT is the same as c:\foo.txt.
> Although I have troubles believing people want to use a technically
> flawed non-free OS that costs a lot of money.  But that might be
> something personally ;-)
> 
> What matters is that it is normal that FAT is not case sensitive.
> It's defined that way.  This change can't and won't be made for ext2,
> for example.  You can have a ~/foo and ~/FOO side by side.  AFAIK,
> this is not possible with FAT.  So I think this patch is ok :-)

I may lack some perspective on how FAT works internally, so please bear with
me, but as far as I can see:

  - FAT is not really case insensitive any more than its path names are
    8.3-limited.  It originally was, but latest revisions don't enforce
    these limitations.

  - For backwards compatibility with legacy applications we don't really
    care about, the _OS_ that usually operates on FAT uses case insensitive
    file access (but not case insensitive directory listing!).

  - The only remnant that we have from all of this, is that two different
    files can't have names that match a case-insensitive comparison, which
    doesn't really affect our problem which is finding a match through case
    insensitive search.

-- 
Robert Millan

<GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call!
<DRM> What use is a phone call… if you are unable to speak?
(as seen on /.)