Case-Insensitive Filesystem Collision on macOS: Clause.rkt vs clause.rkt in satore/

[AradhyaDixit18]

Hi maintainers,

I encountered a reproducible filesystem-level issue when cloning the repository on macOS (default APFS, case-insensitive).

During git clone, Git reports filename collisions in the satore/ project:

'satore/Clause.rkt'
'satore/clause.rkt'
'satore/tests/Clause.rkt'
'satore/tests/clause.rkt'

Because macOS cannot distinguish between files that differ only by case, only one file from each pair is checked out. This results in:

• Git marking the files as “modified” immediately after clone
• Loss of one of the file variants (actual data loss locally)
• Prevents clean worktrees and contributes to confusion for contributors using macOS
• Makes the satore project effectively unusable on macOS without workarounds

This issue will happen for all macOS users using the default filesystem.

Proposed Fixes (I can implement one if preferred):

1. Rename files in satore/ to avoid case collisions
   Example: rename Clause.rkt → Clause_upper.rkt or similar.
   Update require statements in the Racket code accordingly.

2. Move the satore project into a submodule or separate repository
   This isolates the conflicting filesystem and avoids breaking macOS clones of the main repo.

3. Document macOS-specific workaround
   Add a section in README noting:

   • macOS users must clone inside a case-sensitive disk image, OR
   • Use git update-index --assume-unchanged … to ignore the colliding files

4. Provide platform-agnostic file structure
   Standardize filenames to lowercase across the project.

---

Please let me know which fix direction the maintainers prefer.
I am happy to submit a PR with the full solution.

Thanks!

[priyanshumishra610]

Hi @AradhyaDixit18 👋

Thanks for reporting this — the case-insensitive filesystem issue on macOS is a real one and you’ve explained it very clearly. Filename collisions like this can definitely make the project hard to work with for macOS users.

I’m not a maintainer, but I’d be happy to take this up and prepare a PR once the maintainers confirm the preferred direction. From a portability point of view, standardizing filenames (for example, moving to lowercase and updating the requires) seems like the most robust long-term fix, but I’m open to following whatever approach they prefer.

Let me know if it’s okay for me to take ownership of this, and I can handle the implementation and testing on macOS.