RFC for 1.7: Do not checkout -b master origin/master on clone

One common source of confusion for newcomers is the fact that master is given such a special treatment in git. While it is certainly okay and helpful to set up a default branch in a new repository (git init) it is not at all clear why it should be treated specially in any other situation, such as:

- Why is master the only local branch which git clone sets up (git
checkout -b master origin/master)?

- Why does git svn set up a local branch with an svn upstream which is
determined by latest svn commit at the time of the first git svn fetch?

This behaviour not only is hard to justify; in fact it gives users a completely wrong impression: by pretending that master is special, but also by hiding core concepts (distinguishing local/remote branches, detached heads) from the user at a point where that very hiding leads to confusion.

Under the hood, it is of course HEAD which is given special treatment (and which in the majority of repos points to master), and git clone sets up a local branch according to HEAD (and does some other guess work when cloning bare repos), which means that git clone shows the same "random" behaviour which git svn clone does: Which local branch is set up by default depends on the current value of HEAD/most recent commit at the time of the cloning operation.

So, I suggest that starting with git 1.7:

- git clone does not set up any local branches at all
- git svn fetch does not set up any local branches at all

Ducking under my desk... Michael