Please add a file attribute or mount option for case insensitivity...

[piedrok]

Hi!

With ext4 there is the file attribute "+F" which adds case insensitivity to a folder and the containing files. BTRFS doesn't have any option like this...

For cross platform tasks there are many use cases for which case folding is desirable or in some cases even necessary.

My suggestion would be to have this as attribute like on etx4 or as a mount option for a subvolume - or even both?

As it is now, I for example have to use a loop device formatted as ext4, prepared with "chattr +F", as a collection folder that gets input from different file sets send to me by people working on different platforms...

Well, I don't think I have to convince anybody that a case insensitive option would be a useful addition - so I hope this can be added to the todo list!

thanks for reading, pk

Thanks for reading

[MarkRose]

There are patches and some discussion about this on the mailing list: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-bcachefs/20230812145017.259609-4-joshua@froggi.es/T/#u

[kakra]

There are patches and some discussion about this on the mailing list

But that's for bcachefs.

[devZer0]

For cross platform tasks there are many use cases for which case folding is desirable or in some cases even necessary.

just for my curiosity - where is that needed or for what ?

[Atemu]

People run Windows applications through WINE which sometimes assume case insensitivity.

The SteamDeck uses ext4 with case folding by default for this reason.

[piedrok]

@Atemu: Exactly!

Also Steam Workshop Mods are mainly created with Windows in mind.

So mods - even for native linux games! - subscribed to through the Steam workshop will often fail to work.

Though using a case insensitive folder or file system for the same game's mod installation folder often makes the mods and mod update subscription work flawlessly!

Also this improves compatibility for shared folders or partitions between Linux and Windows users. (E.g. via WinBtrfs which claims to have a working "Windows10 case sensitivity flag"...)

It's useful to have the option "case folding" for folders or partitions!

[adrianinsaval]

I also have a need for this and it's not related to gaming, I got my hands on a very good maintenance manual for my car but unfortunately it's in the form of a webpage that was designed to be hosted on windows. Whoever was the idiot that made it did not pay attention to cases and when following links it constantly tries to go to an nonexistent file because the case is different.

[piedrok]

Importing web projects is a nightmare without case insensitivity!

The same is true for backups that have been saved and moved around on different systems. Recovering those file structures gets much easier if case folding can be enabled on some folders - and be it temporarily...

[ChaosRifle]

+1 for case folding. game modding or software in wine often require case insensitivity, and web projects kinda suck without it, as they are often designed without case sensitivity in mind.

Without casefolding we are forced to use ext4 when, not if, we need the feature. With it I could ditch ext4 entirely though.

[ikcikoR]

A video game called "Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis" which can be ran through Proton stores all assets as tiny separate files and from what I understand the lack of case folding is the reason why it runs into EXTREME stutters when loading assets, even on an NVME, so the support for that feature is more than welcome