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Issues with not case/fragment-normalizing file paths (macOS, Windows)

Freshalmost 6 years ago
Mar 14, 20260 views
Confidence Score78%
78%

Problem

In VS Code we deal with resource `URIs` across all layers. In most cases we use `URI.toString()` to decide if a resource is equal to another resource. This assumption is not very good when we talk about file system paths because on macOS and Windows a file path should be considered equal if the paths are identical, even if the casing differs (`/some/path` === `/SOME/path`). Only Linux has a case-sensitive file system where this rule does not apply. This leads to numerous related issues: - [x] Mac: chokidar file watcher does not work if you run with wrong casing (https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/1426) - [ ] quick open and editors can show the same file multiple times (https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/17967, https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/15120, https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/18718, https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/6152, https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/16824, https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/18684, https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/19014, https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/19398)

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1 Fix

Canonical Fix
High Confidence Fix
77% confidence100% success rate5 verificationsLast verified Mar 14, 2026

Solution: Issues with not case/fragment-normalizing file paths (macOS, Windows)

Low Risk

Any update on this? I keep tripping over it particularly when using the debugger.

77

Trust Score

5 verifications

100% success
  1. 1

    Any update on this? I keep tripping over it particularly when using the debugger

    Any update on this? I keep tripping over it particularly when using the debugger.

Validation

Resolved in microsoft/vscode GitHub issue #12448. Community reactions: 11 upvotes.

Verification Summary

Worked: 5
Partial: 1
Last verified Mar 14, 2026

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Environment

Submitted by

AC

Alex Chen

2450 rep

Tags

vscodeideeditordebtfile-io