Re: how to start with non-master branch?

From: Sean Estabrooks <seanlkml@sympatico.ca>
Date: Jul 19, 2009, 16:19 UTC
Message-ID: <BLU0-SMTP89B66EA462C93B0D1943F6AE1C0@phx.gbl>
In-Reply-To: <f46c52560907190553x4e21ffbdn6d55c43f2d6b08ad@mail.gmail.com>

On Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:23:32 +0530 Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Rustom,

Show 6 quoted lines

> I want my first commit to be on a non-master branch.
> So after the git init I do
> $ git checkout -b newbranch
> 
> I get
> fatal: You are on a branch yet to be born

No branches exist in a new repository that you've just init'ed. If you run "git branch" you'll see that no branches are listed. You must make an initial commit before a branch will be "born". Since "git checkout" needs you to supply a branch/commit to operate, you can't use it to create the first branch in a repo.

When you make the initial commit in a repo the HEAD reference will determine which branch is created. So the following ugly looking command will allow you to change the name to something other than master before making your first commit:

	$ git symbolic-ref HEAD refs/heads/newbranch

> Of course I can get by with making the first commit on master and then
> switching.

That is probably the simplest thing to do, rename master after the initial commit:

	$ git commit -m "initial commit"
	$ git branch -m newbranch

HTH, Sean