Why did SCS change branch template $name item paths to start with "_" instead of "#"?

Question

I recently updated Sitecore CLI version 4.2.1 to 5.2.113.

I ran dotnet sitecore ser validate --fix and I noticed many of these log entries:

[/sitecore/templates/Branches/Project/ACME CO] INCORRECT FILE PATH: ~/Pages/General Content Page/$name, 
[/sitecore/templates/Branches/Project/ACME CO] found:    ~\ACME CO\Pages\General Content Page\_name.yml,      
[/sitecore/templates/Branches/Project/ACME CO] expected: ~\ACME CO\Pages\General Content Page\#name.yml
[/sitecore/templates/Branches/Project/ACME] [M] ~\ACME CO\Pages\General Content Page\_name.yml -> ~\ACME CO\Pages\General Content Page\#name.yml

Notice how the branch template $name item's file path changed from _name.yml to #name.yml.

Why was this change made?

None of the release notes mention it:

• 5.1.25
• 5.2.109
• 5.2.113

Answer 1

This conversion from Dollar('$') to ('#') is occuring from the below code snippet inside Sitecore.DevEx.Serialization.Client.dll, which converts all the invalid file characters to '#' symbol.

I believe the changes were made to address and convert all the invalid characters to '#' using above code snippet.

Inside version 4.2.1 of Sitecore.DevEx.Serialization.Client dll, invalid file characters were replaced with underscore('_') symbol.

Below is the list of characters that are considered to be avoided in filenames.

https://www.mtu.edu/umc/services/websites/writing/characters-avoid/

Hope this helps!!!