Re: [PATCH v4 4/4] init: provide useful advice about init.defaultBranch

From: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Date: Dec 11, 2020, 02:00 UTC
Message-ID: <CAMP44s3bhPP4BcNCfa4KeaoaDLm+XZqV1cX8wyaMmZyHzJujuw@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqq360dqgpa.fsf@gitster.c.googlers.com>

On Thu, Dec 10, 2020 at 7:23 PM Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:

Show 23 quoted lines

>
> Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > On Thu, Dec 10, 2020 at 3:58 PM Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget
> > <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> +static const char default_branch_name_advice[] = N_(
> >> +"Using '%s' as the name for the initial branch. This default branch name\n"
> >> +"is subject to change. To configure the initial branch name to use in all\n"
> >> +"of your new repositories, which will suppress this warning, call:\n"
> >> +"\n"
> >> +"\tgit config --global init.defaultBranch <name>\n"
> >> +"\n"
> >> +"Common names are 'main', 'trunk' and 'development'. The initial branch\n"
> >
> > This is disingenuous; the most common name is "master"... by far. In a
> > couple years this might change, but not right now.
> >
> > If you don't want to mention "master", then don't mention "common
> > names" that are not really the most common names.
>
> Names commonly chosen by those who want to move away from 'master'
> are...

But we don't want to spill drama into the user interface.

I think the vast majority of users haven't heard of this drama. Just like the vast majority of users had not heard of the git-foo obsoletion even after several years. Our vantage point is skewed for being too close to Git development.

Those users will ask: "who wants to move away from 'master'?"

If we don't presume our users have the same knowledge as us, we have to explain:

  Names commonly chosen by those who want to move away from 'master'
  are; 'main', 'trunk', and 'development'. For more information read
  this post:
  https://dev.to/rhymu8354/git-renaming-the-master-branch-137b.

I say don't. If the user wants to know why anyone would want to change "the default branch name", she can google it and find out.

Cheer.

-- 
Felipe Contreras