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I am coming from Linux world. I just realized that my MacBook is using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition type today and it's case-insensitive. That concerns me a lot as a developer. Because my previous life never use a case-insensitive partition. I will mainly use Terminal.app in MacBook and Homebrew, Xcode, Flutter etc. Will this case-insensitive partition give me any problems in the future? Since I am really new and wondering what other developers use and recommend for the partition type??

I did find a case where Adobe Photoshop can not install on case-sensitive partition. So does it mean case-insensitive is more common than case-sensitive among users of macOS?

Nimesh Neema
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sgon00
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1 Answers1

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Will this case-insensitive partition give me any problems in the future?

No. You should be fine.

In the default installation mode, the disk is formatted with case-insensitive filesystem (true for older OS releases before APFS). All the developer tools will continue to work fine without any issues. (I'd go ahead and state that the majority of folks run a Mac with this default case-insensitive format).

I have personally seen apps (Photoshop, Steam) not working with case-sensitive filesystem and hence have abstained from using it. (I once formatted the drive on my MacBook with case-sensitive filesystem, sharing similar concern as yours.)

Nimesh Neema
  • 51,809