Re: cp, mv file names when copying to VFAT

[Eric Blake]

> I am running SuSE 10 GNU/Lniux system (cp 5.3.0 and mv 5.3.0 ).

Consider upgrading.  5.3.0 was experimental; the latest stable version
is 5.97: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2006-06/msg00184.html

> When I 
> copy a file in ext3 with filename in all caps to a file system in vfat 
> it is converted to all small letters.
> 
> for example :
>   touch TT
>   touch TTr
>   touch TT2
>   mv TT2* /media/VIKRAM/
> address@hidden:~> ls -l /media/VIKRAM/
> -rw-r--r--   1 vikram users          0 2006-06-24 13:11 tt
> -rw-r--r--   1 vikram users          0 2006-06-24 13:12 tt2
> -rw-r--r--   1 vikram users          0 2006-06-24 13:11 TTr
> 
> I am not sure if this is a bug  but if caps are followed by a letter in 
> small the file name is ok. same behaviour with cp as with mv. Also found 
> same behaviour with directories.

This is not a bug in cp, but a limitation of the VFAT file system
driver on your system.  You should report it to whoever wrote
the kernel-side driver that provides VFAT.  The problem is that
VFAT used to have caps-only names, before the invention of
long file names; but for compatibility, most users wanted to see
lower case names.  So, if you hand the driver all caps, it assumes
it should be compatible, and lower cases the name; but if you
hand it mixed case, it knows you want case preservation.

-- 
Eric Blake