Skip to main content

Your Blog, And Blogger, And FTP Publishing #2

In the server world, there are two dominant platforms- Microsoft (one company, one product) and Linux / Unix (many companies, different products). There are dozens of differences between the two operating systems. One of the most obvious, and yet most easily overlooked, is case sensitivity of file names.

In a Microsoft operating system, a file named "Test.Txt" is treated as the same file as "test.txt". In Unix, you can have those files, and more, in the same folder.
  • test.txt
  • Test.Txt
  • TEST.txt
  • TEST.Txt
are all different files, on a Unix server.

The issue of case preservation (Windows) vs case sensitivity (Unix) is a challenge, when moving files between a server of one world and a server of the other world. And one instance of this issue being relevant is

- -

wait for it

- -

Blogger publishing by FTP.

Blogger FTP publishing involves moving files, from Blogger servers to third party servers. Blogger servers, being of one world, have to move files to other servers. The web server universe contains servers of both worlds, so the Blogger FTP process has to allow for the need to move files to either a Microsoft, or a Linux / Unix, server.

To move files properly, to properly add or replace like named files, and to allow for case preservation or case sensitivity, as appropriate, the Blogger FTP process has to have 2 sets of rules.
  • Linux / Unix: Observe case in file names.
  • Microsoft: Preserve case in file names.


Read the HP white paper, Case Sensitivity versus Case Preservation in CIFS Server, for an in depth explanation of the challenge involved here.

>> Top

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Embedded Comments And Main Page View

The option to display comments, embedded below the post, was made a blog option relatively recently. This was a long requested feature - and many bloggers added it to their blogs, as soon as the option was presented to us. Some blog owners like this feature so much, that they request it to be visible when the blog is opened, in main page view. I would like all comments, and the comment form, to be shown underneath the relevant post, automatically, for everyone to read without clicking on the number of comments link. And this is not how embedded comments work.

What's The URL Of My Blog?

We see the plea for help, periodically I need the URL of my blog, so I can give it to my friends. Help! Who's buried in Grant's Tomb, after all? No Chuck, be polite. OK, OK. The title of this blog is "The Real Blogger Status", and the title of this post is "What's The URL Of My Blog?".

With Following, Anonymous Followers Can't Be Blocked

As people become used to Blogger Following as just another tool to connect people, they start to think about the implications . And we see questions like How do I block someone who's been following my blog secretly? I couldn't see her in my Followers list (hence I couldn't use the "Block this user" link), but I have looked at her profile and could see that she's Following my blog. Following, when you look at the bottom line, is no more than a feed subscription and an icon (possibly) displayed on your blog, and linking back to the profile of the Follower in question. If someone Follows your blog anonymously, all that they get is a subscription to the blog feed. If you publish a feed from your blog, and if the feed is open to anybody (which, right now, is the case ), then it's open to everybody. If someone wants to use Following to subscribe to the feed, you can't stop this. You can't block it before, or after, the fact. You can't Block w