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Something that didn't make sense -- case sensitivity

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    Something that didn't make sense -- case sensitivity

    At some point while transferring files from my old System76 laptop to my new System76 laptop, something weird happened, and it made no sense to me at all.

    I was using Dolphin, split-pane, and had old_laptop on the left and new_laptop on the right. Both laptops' hard drives are formatted as ext4. While copying a directory, Dolphin's prompt came up asking if I wanted to rename/overwrite/skip file_something_or_other, meaning it thought file_something_or_other already existed. But it didn't. Couldn't, as this was an empty partition.

    A closer look showed that file_something_or_other was actually file_something_or_Other and a different file, file_something_or_other, had already been copied. It thought they were the same name--like on window$. IOW, it was disregarding case-sensitivity, and seeing them as the same name. WTF?!

    In 35 years of using *nix I've never seen this happen, nor would I expect to. There is no question that the files being copied were on an ext4 hard drive going to an ext4 hard drive. Any ideas on how/why this happened?

    To get around it, I temporarily renamed file_something_or_other to file_something_or_other_2 and then changed it later at a command line. I cannot reproduce it now, using the same source and destination directories. I've reinstalled 20.04 about a thousand times since it happened...so maybe something was screwed up somehow...?
    Xenix/UNIX user since 1985 | Linux user since 1991 | Was registered Linux user #163544


    #2
    I gave up using a GUI file manager for anything more complicted than moving/copying one or two files ages ago. I got tired of the errors. My main tool for large file operations is Midnight Commander, even as root. Call me old-fashioned but the old stuff just works.
    Constant change is here to stay!

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      #3
      My general habit is to use MC when I am in a root Konsole and Dolphin on my desktop. I must be fortunate. In the 14 years I have been using it I don't recall ever having a problem with it.

      But, I am a mouse man and I continue to look for a good plasma GUI file manager for root.
      "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
      – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.

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        #4
        I use Trackman wireless trackballs on all my computers, including laptops. I dislike touchpads, so I always set those up to disable once the trackball is recognized.

        In general, I do most heavy-duty file manipulation at my beloved command line, but I really like Dolphin for its ability to preview files. When I'm working in directories with a lot of images, seeing them can be very helpful!

        As a rule, I don't even bother installing any file managers besides Dolphin, as it's suited me very well. Right now, for reasons unknown yet, I can't get it to automatically display a remote directory's size--as it always has. So that's a minor inconvenience. The case-sensitivity thing...I guess I'll chalk that up to some anomaly during my 17 million reinstalls!
        Xenix/UNIX user since 1985 | Linux user since 1991 | Was registered Linux user #163544

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