How to handle files in case-sensitive way in Vagrant on Windows host - linux

Question

On My Windows 8 I've installed VirtualBox + Vagrant. I used Laravel Homestead (with Ubuntu) as box. When running site on this VM or running command line I would expect it is being run on Linux and not on Windows. But I found some strange issue:
First my folder mappings:
folders:
- map: D:\DaneAplikacji\easyphp\data\localweb\projects\testprovag\strony
to: /home/vagrant/code
sites:
- map: learn.app
to: /home/vagrant/code/my-first-app/public
When I run in my browser http://learn.app:8000 I got correct output - page from /home/vagrant/code/my-first-app/public what is the same as code from D:\DaneAplikacji\easyphp\data\localweb\projects\testprovag\strony\my-first-app/public just to be clear.
Now the problem:
In my public folder I've created 2 simple files:
File with name test (it's empty) and file index.php with content:
<?php
if (file_exists('TEST')) {
echo "file exists";
}
else {
echo "file NOT exists";
}
So now I run http://learn.app:8000 in browser and I get output file exists. This is the result I wouldn't expect. As far as I know in Linux (my box is Ubuntu) you may have files with different case in names (in opposite to Windows) so I would expect I got file NOT exists.
I've tested it in my VM running php index.php and I get exact same result file exists what is again unexpected.
Now what I did I copied those 2 files to other directory on my VM /home/vagrant/TESTS - this directory is not mapped using Vagrant. Now when I run php index.php I get file NOT exists what is expected result.
To be honest I completely doesn't understand it. Question - does PHP when using Vagrant mapping operating on VM filesystem (in this case Ubuntu) or on Virtual BOX host filesystem (in my case Windows). Is there any way to make it work to get desired result? I know this question might be a bit software related but it's really connected to PHP and Laravel and maybe I miss something here.

Answer 1

I think this issue can be solved not using Samba or too much work.
In Windows cmd I run:
vagrant plugin install vagrant-winnfsd
It installed a plugin for NFS for Windows although at http://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/synced-folders/nfs.html you have clear info that NFS doesn't work for Windows:
Windows users: NFS folders do not work on Windows hosts. Vagrant will ignore your request for NFS synced folders on Windows.
I modified my Homestead.yaml file mapping from:
folders:
- map: D:\DaneAplikacji\easyphp\data\localweb\projects\testprovag\strony
to: /home/vagrant/code
to:
folders:
- map: D:\DaneAplikacji\easyphp\data\localweb\projects\testprovag\strony
to: /home/vagrant/code
type: "nfs"
(probably if not using Homestead.yaml you can add type: nfs, something like that: config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", type: "nfs" in your Vagrantfile)
Now when I run
vagrant up
I got 2 or 3 notices for admin password (probably some Windows configuration of NFS - it will appear only when I run vagrant up first after adding NFS type) but now both for using url http://learn.app:8000 I got for the case from question file NOT exists and the same when I run php index.php in box commandline.
Note: this solution doesn't make you can create test and TEST files in the same directory and you will have them in your file system. It seems to handle file in case sensitive way, so if you create a file in wrong case in your app (and later in your code you want to load it/require) you will notice that it doesn't work on your Vagrant Linux box (and it would work on Windows WAMP and you would be suprised when moving on production).

Answer 2

With the default vagrant share that you use the mounted folder still provided by the underlying file system. It won't handle linux ACLs properly either.
One solution we found for this is instead of sharing the host's folder with the client, we set up samba on the guest and shared it back to the host. It's more cumbersome and you have to do more configuration but at least you app runs in an environment as it should be

Answer 3

Interesting. I use Windows 7 with Homestead - and I also assumed that the case sensitivity file issue would be handled by Vagrant. But I ran some similar tests - and you are correct - it is actually case insensitive.
I can confirm the issue is not to do with PHP at all - the issue actually occurs inside Vagrant on the command line itself:
touch EXAMPLE
rm example
That passes on the Vagrant box when I am SSH into it. But on a real Ubuntu box (I tested it on my server) - that command fails.
The reason is that Vagrant is calling to Windows to check if the file exists for the mapped folders. But if you make a virtual non-mapped folder inside of Vagrant - then the 'call' to see if the file exists remains inside of Vagrant and thus handled only by Ubuntu - and that is why your other test passed.
I tried turning on Case Sensitivity for Windows 7 as documented here - but it didnt solve the problem