Bug: Git rename does not work if folder naming was changed from lower to upper case on OSX

Bug: Git rename does not work if folder naming was changed from lower to upper case on OSX

[Robert Eisele]

Hi,

after having committed folders with lower case naming, I decided to 
rename them to upper-case names. Expecting git to detect them as 
renamings, it started a new parallel hierarchy with new files, which I 
had to add/commit.

It was a kinda strange behavior, which I fixed by rename the folder to 
something completely different, commit and rename the folder again to 
the desired value.

Is this an actual desired behavior or is it a bug?

Robert

Re: Bug: Git rename does not work if folder naming was changed from lower to upper case on OSX

[Torsten Bögershausen]

>
> after having committed folders with lower case naming, I decided to rename them
> to upper-case names. Expecting git to detect them as renamings, it started a
> new parallel hierarchy with new files, which I had to add/commit.
>
> It was a kinda strange behavior, which I fixed by rename the folder to
> something completely different, commit and rename the folder again to the
> desired value.
>
> Is this an actual desired behavior or is it a bug?

It is expected (but may be unexpected), I hope these hints are not too harsh:
You can blame the vendor of the OS,
who decided to design a file system which ignores the case of files.
(Or yourself, because you use it)
(Or yourself, because you can install a HFS+ partition under OSX which
is NOT case insensitive, but few people seem to know about this or use it)
(harsh mode off)

The correct way to rename a file under Git is to use Git:

git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /private/tmp/ttt/.git/
user@Mac:/tmp/ttt>mkdir dir1
user@Mac:/tmp/ttt>echo File >dir1/file
user@Mac:/tmp/ttt>git add dir1/file
user@Mac:/tmp/ttt>git commit -m "add dir1/file"
[master (root-commit) 14d3862] add dir1/file
  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
  create mode 100644 dir1/file
user@Mac:/tmp/ttt>git mv dir1/file DIR1/FILE
user@Mac:/tmp/ttt>git commit  "mv dir1/file DIR1/FILE"
user@Mac:/tmp/ttt>git ls-files
DIR1/FILE


>
> Robert
>

Re: Bug: Git rename does not work if folder naming was changed from lower to upper case on OSX

[Kevin Daudt]

On Sat, Apr 29, 2017 at 12:47:13PM +0200, Robert Eisele wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> after having committed folders with lower case naming, I decided to rename
> them to upper-case names. Expecting git to detect them as renamings, it
> started a new parallel hierarchy with new files, which I had to add/commit.
> 
> It was a kinda strange behavior, which I fixed by rename the folder to
> something completely different, commit and rename the folder again to the
> desired value.
> 
> Is this an actual desired behavior or is it a bug?
> 
> Robert
> 

Note that git does not store that files are renamed. So a remove + add
is the same as a rename in git. Only git status shows it when you for
example use git mv directly, but this information is lost on commit.
Instead of storing it get relies on detecting what (parts of ) files got
renamed, copied etc.

Re: Bug: Git rename does not work if folder naming was changed from lower to upper case on OSX

[Junio C Hamano]

Kevin Daudt <me@ikke.info> writes:

> Note that git does not store that files are renamed. So a remove + add
> is the same as a rename in git. Only git status shows it when you for
> example use git mv directly, but this information is lost on commit.

Are you sure about the last sentence?  I do not recall teaching
anything special to "git status".  If "git status" says A was
created by renaming B, and if you committed that state was-is, "git
show" on the result commit _should_ say the same thing, I would
think.

> Instead of storing it get relies on detecting what (parts of ) files got
> renamed, copied etc.

That statement I belieave is true.

Re: Bug: Git rename does not work if folder naming was changed from lower to upper case on OSX

[Kevin Daudt]

On Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 06:47:29PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Kevin Daudt <me@ikke.info> writes:
> 
> > Note that git does not store that files are renamed. So a remove + add
> > is the same as a rename in git. Only git status shows it when you for
> > example use git mv directly, but this information is lost on commit.
> 
> Are you sure about the last sentence?  I do not recall teaching
> anything special to "git status".  If "git status" says A was
> created by renaming B, and if you committed that state was-is, "git
> show" on the result commit _should_ say the same thing, I would
> think.

Yes, of course, you are right. Git status also detects a file being
renamed instead of relying on it being recorded.
> 
> > Instead of storing it get relies on detecting what (parts of ) files got
> > renamed, copied etc.
> 
> That statement I belieave is true.

Why are you reserved here?

Kevin.