Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ucbcad!nike!rutgers!husc6!ut-sally!std-unix From: std-unix@ut-sally.UUCP (Guest Moderator, John B. Chambers) Newsgroups: mod.std.unix Subject: Re: Case sensitive file names Message-ID: <5880@ut-sally.UUCP> Date: Fri, 3-Oct-86 15:08:59 EDT Article-I.D.: ut-sally.5880 Posted: Fri Oct 3 15:08:59 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 4-Oct-86 08:25:46 EDT Organization: IEEE 1003 Portable Operating System for Computer Environments Committee Lines: 45 Approved: jbc@sally.utexas.edu From davest%tektronix.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA Fri Oct 3 14:04:03 1986 Message-Id: <8610031825.AA25406@tektronix.TEK> To: std-unix@SALLY.UTEXAS.EDU Subject: Re: Case sensitive file names Newsgroups: mod.std.unix In-Reply-To: <5860@ut-sally.UUCP> Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR. Date: 03 Oct 86 11:25:11 PDT (Fri) From: "David C. Stewart" Source-Info: From (or Sender) name not authenticated. In article <5860@ut-sally.UUCP> Mark Horton writes: >It's also reasonable to leave the case alone, but ignore case in >comparisons. There is also probably a good argument for keeping >it case sensitive (after all, there are probably 5 or 6 people out >there who really need both makefile and Makefile, or both mail and >Mail, for some reason that escapes me at the moment.) I can think of one well-used exception right away: make(1), as it works now, will look for rules in `makefile' first, and if `Makefile' exists in the same directory, it will not be used by make. On the other hand, Glenn Fowler's Fourth Generation Make [1] chooses the opposite order of accepting default rules files, ie, it tries `Makefile' first and, if one does not exist, it tries `makefile'. It is claimed that this is a feature, rather than an annoyance since Fourth Generation makefiles are incompatable with old-style makefiles. Thus, one can maintain the old make makefile in `makefile' and the new make makefile in `Makefile'. This may just be picking nits, but I think the point is that case sensitivity in the file system is a Unix feature, like it or not. There may be other applications that depend on case-sensitive file names that would become non-portable. [1] Fowler, Glenn S., "The Fourth Generation Make", Proceedings of the Usenix Association Summer Conference, Portland, OR, 1985. (Note that the actual release of nmake in the AT&T Toolchest differs in this respect with the function described in this paper.) -- David C. Stewart uucp: tektronix!davest Unix Systems Support Group csnet: davest@TEKTRONIX Tektronix, Inc. phone: (503) 627-5418 Volume-Number: Volume 7, Number 15