[R-SIG-Mac] testing/asserting case sensitivity

[Ben Bolker]

   I have a problem/annoyance with students who are working on MacOS and 
sharing Git repositories with data file and code where the strings used 
in their code to designate the data files are not case-matched to the 
actual names of the files on disk.  They don't notice this because 
they're using a case-insensitive file system on MacOS, but it bites me 
when I try to run the code on my Linux system.

   I can of course tell them to be more careful, but: is there any kind 
of programmatic check for this that they could use when testing their 
code before submission? (Students are not super-technically savvy, so 
telling them to adjust the properties of their file systems, even if 
it's something that's possible, is not a realistic option; neither is 
telling them to use GitHub Actions to run checks elsewhere ...)

   I'm imagining (ideally) some kind of _CHECK_CASE_STRICTLY_ 
environment variable/options setting/etc., but I'd be interested in any 
creative solutions.

   Tangentially related:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/1ha36y5/macos_apfs_caseinsensitive_and_handling_git_repo/

   cheers
    Ben Bolker


-- 
Dr. Benjamin Bolker
Professor, Mathematics & Statistics and Biology, McMaster University
Associate Chair (Graduate), Department of Mathematics & Statistics
Director, School of Computational Science and Engineering
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