I've been using a User short-name which is in all caps. (I've not experienced any issues I'm aware as this set-up has been in use for several years.) ...I've just read where the short-name must be all low-case.
Other than deleting the current User account in favor of a New User account, is there a way using Terminal to effect the short-name change with the current User?
- If I must delete this current User account, I've seen Apple's instructions about saving a Home folder disk image. But, I'm not clear about how to re-install that saved Home folder (contents ?) to the New User after deleting the Old (current) User.
The short name is all lower case by history and convention in Unix. It is no longer a requirement (hasn't been for a long time) that it must be all lower case.
... just to confirm.
With 10.8.3, I'm Ok to have my short-name in all capital letters. Correct?
Correct. It won't hurt anything.
Just a reminder that HFS+ support case sensitivity if you choose to enable it. And then it will get picky on you if you try to swap case unexpectedly.
OS X has an interesting take on case sensitivity. When you select "case sensitive", it becomes both "case sensitive" and "case-preferred". And iirc it prefers upper case. But not everything prefers. Testing for file existence for example does NOT prefer, it demands.
On a case-sensitive system, you can do the following dance:
create HELLO
edit HELLO
edit hello (also works, edits HELLO)
test for HELLO (found), hello (not found)
create hello (now you have HELLO and hello, HELLO will occur first in file listings)
test for HELLO (found), hello (also found)
edit hello again (but unlike before, this time you're editing hello, not HELLO)
edit Hello (and it will edit HELLO, not hello, because only HELLO starts with H)
Testing for existence requires exact case match. Everything else (iirc) prefers upper but will settle for lower. This causes weird problems when installing software not tested to run on case sensitive systems.
app start.
does preferences file exist? no.
create new Preferences file with default settings
save new settings
program runs and makes changes to prefs as user uses app.
app close
later...
app start.
does preferences file exist? no.
create new Preferences file with default settings
... where did my pref changes go?
of course this is the programmer's fault but easy mistake to make. You might also find you have both a Preferences and preferences file at the same time, causing additional weirdness. Occasionally you will run into software that will NOT work correctly on case sensitive HFS+ filesystems.
