[Bioc-devel] Avoiding files that differ only in case in your package

[Hervé Pagès]

Hi developers,

We've seen attempts to put files that differ only in case in some BioC packages.
We'd like to remind you that this can cause problems to people that want to
extract the source tarball (or checking out the source) of such package
on a case insensitive file system. Please don't to put files with names that
differ only in case in your packages.

We've decided to make this an explicit requirement by adding it to our
Package Guidelines:

   http://wiki.fhcrc.org/bioc/Package_Guidelines#correctness

and by adding a pre-commit hook to our Subversion server so this will be
checked at every commit. For example, trying to add a TODo file to the
Biostrings package now produces the following error:

  hpages at george1:~/svn/Biostrings> svn st
  A      TODo
  hpages at george1:~/svn/Biostrings> svn ci -m '#just testing svn commit'
  Adding         TODo
  Transmitting file data .svn: Commit failed (details follow):
  svn: MERGE request failed on '/bioconductor/trunk/madman/Rpacks/Biostrings'
  svn: 'pre-commit' hook failed with error output:
  svnlook: Write error: Broken pipe

  File name case conflict found:

    trunk/madman/Rpacks/Biostrings/TODo already exists as TODO

Thanks and happy New Year!

-- 
Hervé Pagès

Program in Computational Biology
Division of Public Health Sciences
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
1100 Fairview Ave. N, M2-B876
P.O. Box 19024
Seattle, WA 98109-1024

E-mail: hpages at fhcrc.org
Phone:  (206) 667-5791
Fax:    (206) 667-1319