Re: [PATCH 1/9] init: allow overriding the default branch name for new repositories

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Jun 14, 2020, 22:00 UTC
Message-ID: <nycvar.QRO.7.76.6.2006142350580.56@tvgsbejvaqbjf.bet>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqlfks2pod.fsf@gitster.c.googlers.com>

Hi Junio,

On Fri, 12 Jun 2020, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 11 quoted lines

> Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> writes:
>
> > I added a _brief_ extension to the context to the first commit's commit
> > message. However, I do not want to go into details here because _this_
> > patch series is only about empowering users to change their default main
> > branch name.
>
> Sensible.
>
> And I do not think the planned follow-up work to rename 'master' to
> something else needs to be defended with lengthy history lessons.

Yes, I agree. It is probably sufficient to just point at a couple high-profile projects that already made the switch to `main`.

> Sufficiently large part of the user population are unhappy with the
> use of the word 'master' as the default name of the primary branch
> in a newly created repository, and the mere fact that we are aware
> of that is good enough justification to move _away_ from 'master'.

Yes, even Pasky says he regrets the choice of term (see https://twitter.com/xpasky/status/1271477451756056577):

	I picked the names "master" (and "origin") in the early Git tooling
	back in 2005.

	(this probably means you shouldn't give much weight to my name
	preferences :) )

	I have wished many times I would have named them "main" (and
	"upstream") instead.

Show 5 quoted lines

> In other words, we do not have to explain why 'master' was bad, as
> it does not have to be bad for everybody to be replaced.
>
> But you need to defend that the new word you picked is something
> everybody is happy with.  That is much harder ;-).

To be honest, I stopped looking for got arguments in favor of one name after a couple days, and instead focused on the consensus I saw: Chrome [*1*] and node.js [*2*] apparently stated publicly that they want to change their main branches to `main`, and GitLab [*3*] and GitHub [*4*] seem to intend to change the default for new repositories accordingly.

It is not like we have to decide for the community (as we did back in 2005). I am actually quite relieved about that.

Ciao, Dscho

URL *1*: https://twitter.com/Una/status/1271180494944829441 URL *2*: https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/33864 URL *3*: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/221164 URL *4*: https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1271253144442253312 (this is not really a public announcement, I agree, but it is a public Tweet by the CEO)