Working on a Mac, I rarely rename files in Git. That was until the other day when my application wouldn't compile after I renamed a file and I couldn't understand why. Let me explain.
The Problem
The default file system on MacOS is case insensitive. If you rename any file, you won't notice a problem. However, if you work with Git, you'll find that the files in the repository (which is usually on Linux, which is case sensitive) are different from the ones on your computer.
In my case, I could compile the project locally, both natively and with Docker. However, it wouldn't build on the CI, and it took me a few minutes to realize the problem.
The Solution
You can always create a case-insensitive partition on your Mac, but I prefer a faster solution:
- Be aware of the problem.
- Git has subcommands for managing files, such as
git mv, which allows you to rename files safely.
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