Those of you who work or worked on porting Windows applications (any kind of them - ASP.NET, WinForms, console) might have come across a problem with case-sensitivity of file names. Windows file systems are either case-unaware and case-insensitive (the FAT family) or case-aware but case-insensitive (NTFS). In both cases applications performing I/O don't need to worry about using proper file name casing, as the underlying operating system will ignore the case and open the file without problems. This is not the case on Unix operating systems which have file systems that are both case-aware and case-sensitive.
Mono has had a solution for this problem for a long time - it's called IOMAP. It's a runtime mechanism which, if enabled by exporting the MONO_IOMAP variable, will translate not only file name case to the correct form used on disk, but will also strip DOS drive designators from the paths and translate DOS path separator character to the Unix one, thus making the application work seamlessly. The convenience comes at a price, of course, as translating the file names involves performing a lot of disk I/O to discover the real file name. So if your application is supposed to be ran on Unix most (if not all) of the time then the better to dive into the source and make sure that file names on disk are consistent with their use in the source code.
With small applications the operation is usually straight-forward and takes little time. With bigger codebases, however, it might pose a problem, especially if strings used to access files are constructed in different places of the application as opposed to being just plain literals.
For that reason I have recently created a Mono profiler module (it is somewhat of a misnomer, as the utility has little to do with code profiling) which aims at helping the developer/porter to find places in code which call .NET I/O routines passing them misformed file/directory paths as well as identify places where those strings are constructed. The former part is very simple and it merely prints to the console a stack trace leading to the I/O routine call site every time file/directory name mapping is performed. The latter part, however, is a bit more problematic as it has to deal with two separate moments in string's life - its creation and its actual use. The code uses the Mono profiler API to monitor string allocations storing all the strings created in hash tables as well as remembering the stack frame which leads to the string creation site. The code which does that is pretty fast, so it doesn't impact your application's performance too much even though it collects and stores a large amount of data (mostly pointers and some strings, though). When file name mapping is performed during file I/O, the profiler code looks up the string address and retrieves the stack trace to store it for later use. When the application exits a summary report is printed to the console which includes some statistics on the string, its original (requested) and target (mapped) form as well as a location (if it was possible to determine it) where the string was created. The location is determined using simple heuristics, so it might sometimes point to a location which is near the place where the string was created. The heuristics code walks the stack frames looking for first frame which is in application code - that is it ignores the well-known class library assemblies shipped with Mono (corlib, System*, some Mono* assemblies etc) and all the assemblies installed in the GAC. The first frame which doesn't belong in either of the above is considered to be user's code and is reported to be the string allocation location. If the stack trace doesn't contain any such frames, full trace is recorded and shown in the summary.
To take advantage of this utility you will need Mono from trunk (or 2.8 when it is released). It is advisable to compile your application with full debugging information, so that source files and line numbers can be reported (otherwise only Namespace.Class.Method will be printed). To enable the utility, make sure the MONO_IOMAP environment variable is present and set to 'all', 'case' or 'drive' and execute your application as follows:
mono --debug --profile=iomap your_application.exe
If you're porting an ASP.NET application, use the following command line:
MONO_OPTIONS="--debug --profile=iomap" xsp2
Below you can see output from a sample application showing the utility's behavior:
$ MONO_IOMAP=all mono --profile=iomap --debug iomap-report-sample.exe
Running test: Mismatched file name case.
-=-=-=-=-=-=- MONO_IOMAP REPORT -=-=-=-=-=-=-
- Requested file path: 'files/Test2.txt'
- Found file path: 'Files/test2.txt'
-= Stack Trace =-
at System.Environment.get_StackTrace() in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System/Environment.cs:line 183
at System.IO.MonoIO.GetFileAttributes(System.String , MonoIOError ByRef )
at System.IO.MonoIO.ExistsDirectory(System.String path, MonoIOError ByRef error) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/MonoIO.cs:line 252
at System.IO.Directory.Exists(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/Directory.cs:line 201
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(System.String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, Boolean anonymous, FileOptions options) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/FileStream.cs:line 246
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(System.String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share)
at System.IO.File.OpenRead(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 331
at System.IO.StreamReader..ctor(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding, Boolean detectEncodingFromByteOrderMarks, Int32 bufferSize) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/StreamReader.cs:line 171
at System.IO.StreamReader..ctor(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding)
at System.IO.File.ReadAllText(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 542
at System.IO.File.ReadAllText(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 537
at app.MismatchedFileNames() in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 45
at app.RunTest(System.String banner, System.Action test) in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 24
at app.Main(System.String[] args) in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 39
-=-=-=-=-=-=- MONO_IOMAP REPORT -=-=-=-=-=-=-
- Requested file path: '/home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/files'
- Found file path: '/home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/Files'
-= Stack Trace =-
at System.Environment.get_StackTrace() in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System/Environment.cs:line 183
at System.IO.MonoIO.GetFileAttributes(System.String , MonoIOError ByRef )
at System.IO.MonoIO.ExistsDirectory(System.String path, MonoIOError ByRef error) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/MonoIO.cs:line 252
at System.IO.Directory.Exists(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/Directory.cs:line 201
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(System.String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, Boolean anonymous, FileOptions options) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/FileStream.cs:line 270
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(System.String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share)
at System.IO.File.OpenRead(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 331
at System.IO.StreamReader..ctor(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding, Boolean detectEncodingFromByteOrderMarks, Int32 bufferSize) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/StreamReader.cs:line 171
at System.IO.StreamReader..ctor(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding)
at System.IO.File.ReadAllText(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 542
at System.IO.File.ReadAllText(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 537
at app.MismatchedFileNames() in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 45
at app.RunTest(System.String banner, System.Action test) in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 24
at app.Main(System.String[] args) in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 39
File 1: Hello, world - test2.txt here
-=-=-=-=-=-=- MONO_IOMAP REPORT -=-=-=-=-=-=-
- Requested file path: 'files/test.txt'
- Found file path: 'Files/TesT.txt'
-= Stack Trace =-
at System.Environment.get_StackTrace() in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System/Environment.cs:line 183
at System.IO.MonoIO.GetFileAttributes(System.String , MonoIOError ByRef )
at System.IO.MonoIO.ExistsDirectory(System.String path, MonoIOError ByRef error) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/MonoIO.cs:line 252
at System.IO.Directory.Exists(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/Directory.cs:line 201
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(System.String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, Boolean anonymous, FileOptions options) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/FileStream.cs:line 246
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(System.String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share)
at System.IO.File.OpenRead(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 331
at System.IO.StreamReader..ctor(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding, Boolean detectEncodingFromByteOrderMarks, Int32 bufferSize) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/StreamReader.cs:line 171
at System.IO.StreamReader..ctor(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding)
at System.IO.File.ReadAllText(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 542
at System.IO.File.ReadAllText(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 537
at app.MismatchedFileNames() in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 46
at app.RunTest(System.String banner, System.Action test) in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 24
at app.Main(System.String[] args) in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 39
File 2: Hello, world - TesT here
Running test: Access from an assembly.
Reading a file.
-=-=-=-=-=-=- MONO_IOMAP REPORT -=-=-=-=-=-=-
- Requested file path: 'fileS/tESt.txt'
- Found file path: 'Files/TesT.txt'
-= Stack Trace =-
at System.Environment.get_StackTrace() in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System/Environment.cs:line 183
at System.IO.MonoIO.GetFileAttributes(System.String , MonoIOError ByRef )
at System.IO.MonoIO.ExistsDirectory(System.String path, MonoIOError ByRef error) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/MonoIO.cs:line 252
at System.IO.Directory.Exists(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/Directory.cs:line 201
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(System.String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, Boolean anonymous, FileOptions options) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/FileStream.cs:line 246
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(System.String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share)
at System.IO.File.OpenRead(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 331
at System.IO.StreamReader..ctor(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding, Boolean detectEncodingFromByteOrderMarks, Int32 bufferSize) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/StreamReader.cs:line 171
at System.IO.StreamReader..ctor(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding)
at System.IO.File.ReadAllText(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 542
at System.IO.File.ReadAllText(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 537
at LibClass.ReadFile(System.String dir, System.String fileName) in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-lib.cs:line 12
at app.AccessFromAssembly() in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 51
at app.RunTest(System.String banner, System.Action test) in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 24
at app.Main(System.String[] args) in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 40
-=-=-=-=-=-=- MONO_IOMAP REPORT -=-=-=-=-=-=-
- Requested file path: '/home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/fileS'
- Found file path: '/home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/Files'
-= Stack Trace =-
at System.Environment.get_StackTrace() in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System/Environment.cs:line 183
at System.IO.MonoIO.GetFileAttributes(System.String , MonoIOError ByRef )
at System.IO.MonoIO.ExistsDirectory(System.String path, MonoIOError ByRef error) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/MonoIO.cs:line 252
at System.IO.Directory.Exists(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/Directory.cs:line 201
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(System.String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, Boolean anonymous, FileOptions options) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/FileStream.cs:line 270
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(System.String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share)
at System.IO.File.OpenRead(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 331
at System.IO.StreamReader..ctor(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding, Boolean detectEncodingFromByteOrderMarks, Int32 bufferSize) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/StreamReader.cs:line 171
at System.IO.StreamReader..ctor(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding)
at System.IO.File.ReadAllText(System.String path, System.Text.Encoding encoding) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 542
at System.IO.File.ReadAllText(System.String path) in /usr/src/tmp/mono/mcs/class/corlib/System.IO/File.cs:line 537
at LibClass.ReadFile(System.String dir, System.String fileName) in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-lib.cs:line 12
at app.AccessFromAssembly() in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 51
at app.RunTest(System.String banner, System.Action test) in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 24
at app.Main(System.String[] args) in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:line 40
Reading file: Hello, world - TesT here
-=-=-=-=-=-=-= MONO_IOMAP Stats -=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Count: 2
Requested: /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/fileS
Actual: /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/Files
Locations:
LibClass:ReadFile (string,string) in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-lib.cs:12
Count: 7
Requested: fileS/tESt.txt
Actual: Files/TesT.txt
Locations:
LibClass:ReadFile (string,string) in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-lib.cs:12
Count: 4
Requested: /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/files
Actual: /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/Files
Locations:
app:MismatchedFileNames () in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:45
app:MismatchedFileNames () in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:45
Count: 7
Requested: files/Test2.txt
Actual: Files/test2.txt
Locations:
app:MismatchedFileNames () in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:45
Count: 7
Requested: files/test.txt
Actual: Files/TesT.txt
Locations:
app:MismatchedFileNames () in /home/grendel/Projects/work/iomap-report-sample/iomap-report-sample.cs:46
