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10.3: Create a case-sensitive HFS+ disk
Authored by: MadCabbit on Jan 22, '04 01:57:58AM

The -s flag does work, but using newfs_hfs only will not show it as being case-sensitive in diskutil/Disk Utility. I have used the -s flag and tested it, and it works. Try creating a volume that way, then mount it, and attempt to create files named "test" and "TEST" It will let you do this in a case-sensitive FS, but not a case-insensitive one.

diskutil is where I started when looking for information about case-sensitivity initially months ago. This led me to /System/Library/FileSystems/hfs.fs/Contents/Info.plist, to the part the diskutil example uses:


     <key>Case-sensitive HFS+</key>
     <dict>
          <key>FSFormatArguments</key>
          <string>-s -J</string>
          <key>FSFormatContentMask</key>
          <string>Apple_HFSX</string>
          <key>FSFormatExecutable</key>
          <string>../../../../../../sbin/newfs_hfs</string>
          ...
          <key>FSName</key>
          <string>Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive/Journaled)</string>
          ...
     </dict>

(non-relevant parts, such a FS size limits, stripped out for clarity)

This information led me to hfs_fs -s -J in the first place, since it what diskutil calls to actually create the volume.

It appears, based on that last , that diskutil stores FSName somewhere that it (and the GUI equivalent) uses to identify it as case-sensitive. However, it appears that they are otherwise the same. Doing a "Get Info" on a volume created each way reports "Mac OS (Extended)" as the Format regardless. mount also shows the format as "(local, journaled)" in both cases, so outside of diskutil/Disk Utility, the OS seems to see the volume as HFS+ journaled, but is unable to determine that its case-sensitive.

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