Re: [PATCH 6/6] breaking-changes: switch default branch to main

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Sep 3, 2025, 18:40 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqcy87fkhm.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <9d52f24e-d495-44d4-b122-7d80d1f4b77f@gmail.com>

Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com> writes:

Show 7 quoted lines

> When the variable was introduced in 704fed9ea22 (tests: start moving
> to a different default main branch name, 2020-10-23) it was described
> as "This `GIT_TEST_*` variable is meant purely for the transitional
> period while the entire test suite is converted to use `main` as the
> initial branch name by default." The way it has been used is to allow
> tests to continue to hard code a fixed name for the default initial
> branch.

Yes, but ripping it out would mean that you make it much harder to transition out of 'main' and move to the next correct name when the need comes, wouldn't it?

> ... like to keep the patches that switch the tests from using
> "master" to "main".

I have no problem with that. I am still unsure about that "reftable cares about the name being 'master'" thing. If that can live with any 6 byte name, we may want to fix it to something different from 'master', for the sake of removing 'master'. Perhaps 'banana' or something?