Re: Change default branch name (server side) while cloning a repository

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Mar 27, 2015, 16:47 UTC
Message-ID: <20150327164714.GA10191@peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <551568CF.2050301@atlas-elektronik.com>

On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 03:27:27PM +0100, Stefan Näwe wrote:

Show 8 quoted lines

> > If i now clone the repository on my local machine, then the default branch
> > should be pointing to mainline and not master. However, the issue is that it
> > still points to master. Am I /wrong/ in assuming that changing the entry in
> > file HEAD for a given repository on Git server will change the default
> > branch while cloning? If I’m wrong, can anyone please tell me how can I
> > enforce this change on the /server/ side correctly?
> 
> Works for me with  "gitolite3 v3.6.2-24-g8e36230 on git 2.3.4".

It may be related to the version.

Prior to v1.8.4.3, git servers did not communicate the symbolic ref data to the client. The client guessed it based on which branch had the same sha1 as HEAD, and if there was ambiguity, it guessed "master" over others. So it would usually work, but would sometimes have odd results.

In v1.8.4.3, the server started advertising the name of the branch. You need the client and server both to be that version or more recent for it to work (otherwise, git falls back to the guessing behavior).

-Peff