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How can I get information if my HD format is case sensitive or case insensitive?

I want to make sure my Mac running Mountain Lion has a case sensitive file system.

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As bmike mentioned, using a case sensitive file system is more likely a bad idea -- a number of softwares (most famously from Adobe) will not work on a case sensitive file system. The case sensitive status of the file system is not a 'cool extra feature' for jo random user -- it is something for power users who know what they are doing. For joe random user a case sensitive file system is more likely a liability than not. – user1256923 Nov 12 '12 at 17:55

7 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

You can use terminal to read the File System Personality:

diskutil list /

Look for the fields named below:

   File System Personality:  Journaled HFS+
   Type (Bundle):            hfs
   Name (User Visible):      Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

If the file system is case sensitive, you will see Case-sensitive Journaled HFS in the first pasted line and Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) in the third.

Disk Utility will also show you this from the info window for any File System it can see.

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6  
I don't want to discourage you from using case-sensitive file systems, but be aware that most software tests don't do a good job of covering this edge case and most experienced administrators will advise against enabling this on your boot volume due to past bad experiences supporting this configuration. I usually make an external drive or a dmg when I truly need case-sensitivity for cross platform needs or a very specific code base. You may have good reasons for needing this, but I wanted to make sure others are aware that there can be problems with being too sensitive with your file system. – bmike♦ Nov 12 '12 at 17:31
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Yes, i need that for testing web development. Most of hosting use case sensitive. So i want to match it. But like you said: if case sensitive make some software didn't work, seems like case sensitive will be useless :) – GusDeCooL Nov 13 '12 at 15:10
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Yours is actually the only reason I have made either test partitions and/or disk images and chosen a case-sensitive filesystem. I keep my system default, but test development, deployment and scripts on a web root based on the alternate file system's path. I'd also add, I haven't run OS X on case-sensitive FS since Snow Leopard days, so I may just be out of date and afraid for nothing due to past experiences. Sounds like you're well armed to give either scenario a go - dive in or compartmentalize your testing. – bmike♦ Nov 13 '12 at 16:39
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If you need an environment for testing web development, running a virtual machine is an alternative to consider as well, since there might be other quirks and differences between your Mac and the environment on production servers. Have a look at VirtualBox + Vagrant. – Gerry Nov 15 '12 at 4:44
Note, In OS X 10.8.x (Mountain Lion) I had to do diskutil info as list did not show the expected information. – Nick Feb 7 at 13:40
up vote 4 down vote

You can do a test in a shell:

  • Open the Terminal

  • Enter the following commands:

    touch ABC1
    touch abc2
    ls abc*

If the ls command displays both files ABC1 and abc2, then your drive is case insensitive. If only abc2 is displayed, then it is case sensitive.

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An empirical solution - very nice. – bmike♦ Nov 15 '12 at 4:56
up vote 2 down vote

run diskutil info <device> and your answer will be shown.

File System Personality will reflect one of the known personalities.

If you see: File System Personality: Journaled HFS+ that means it's case insensitive. To answer your question, you want to see File System Personality: Case-sensitive Journaled HFS+.

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up vote 2 down vote

Jean-François Beauchamp's solution doesn't work properly.
Something like this would be more appropriate:

Testing

touch abc1
touch abC1
ls ab*

Interpreting Results

  • 1 file - case insensitive
  • 2 files - case sensitive
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up vote 1 down vote

Fastest way is using Terminal.app:

diskutil info /Volumes/NAME-OF-VOLUME

or (if you want to only see the relevant line)

diskutil info /Volumes/NAME-OF-VOLUME | grep 'User Visible'
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up vote 0 down vote

Unfortunately Jean-François Beauchamp's solution that relies on 'ls' doesn't seem to work for me (OS X 10.8.2). I have a case-insensitive file system, but ls still only lists 'abc2'.

What does work for me is:

echo -n This file system is case->tmp; echo -n in>>TMP; echo sensitive>>tmp; cat tmp
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up vote -2 down vote

You can also use Disk Utility to check the partition format. If the format is case-sensitive, it will say so in the format name, otherwise nothing will be indicated.

You can see the menus on this link: http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html

Beware that it is not the "Mac" that is case-sensitive or not, it is each partition on your drives.

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