Site Server Search Is Set to Case Insensitive by Default (193484)

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SYMPTOMS

When you create a new catalog definition and then perform a Web link crawl on a UNIX server, the full crawl works correctly. A network monitor trace shows that the case of the URLs in the HTTP GET requests are the same as in the content (case is honored).

When you perform an incremental crawl, the trace shows that all requested URLs are converted to lowercase, which fails on UNIX servers that are set to case sensitive. A network monitor trace shows that the case of all URLs is changed to lowercase.

CAUSE

This behavior is by design.

Case insensitive URLs are the default behavior for Site Server Search. This may cause a problem if you send the Gatherer to scan sites using case sensitive links (mostly found on UNIX computers).

RESOLUTION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys And Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

To make the gatherer use case sensitive URLs, follow these steps:

Set the following registry values in the appropriate catalog registry keys:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Site Server\3.0\Search\Gather\<catalog>

CaseSensitiveUrls=1
NormalizeUrls=0
Restart the Gthrsvc.
Perform a full crawl so that future incremental crawls act as expected.

MORE INFORMATION

Site Server Search treats URLs as case-insensitive by default. This default behavior is designed to prevent different case versions of the same URLs appearing as different documents when in fact they are not.