When nova-nix grows a macOS install story, the dedicated store volume (already required by the sealed system root - the same synthetic.conf + APFS volume upstream creates) gets formatted CASE-SENSITIVE. That one choice gives macOS true-name materialization with no case-hack, closing the platform gap upstream cannot easily close retroactively (its installer created case-insensitive volumes for years and a default change would strand existing stores). Greenfield advantage: nova-nix has no legacy macOS installs.
Runtime detection stays capability-based either way: pathconf(_PC_CASE_SENSITIVE) reports the store's actual sensitivity, and stores on folding volumes keep the case-hack fallback (upstream's Darwin default). See #67 for the cross-platform design.
When nova-nix grows a macOS install story, the dedicated store volume (already required by the sealed system root - the same synthetic.conf + APFS volume upstream creates) gets formatted CASE-SENSITIVE. That one choice gives macOS true-name materialization with no case-hack, closing the platform gap upstream cannot easily close retroactively (its installer created case-insensitive volumes for years and a default change would strand existing stores). Greenfield advantage: nova-nix has no legacy macOS installs.
Runtime detection stays capability-based either way: pathconf(_PC_CASE_SENSITIVE) reports the store's actual sensitivity, and stores on folding volumes keep the case-hack fallback (upstream's Darwin default). See #67 for the cross-platform design.