Re: Rename offensive terminology (master)

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jun 11, 2020, 15:14 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqlfktbpnf.fsf@gitster.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <f27450d8-59a1-dc0b-f741-c8c883b95fe0@gmail.com>

Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com> writes:

Show 19 quoted lines

> On 6/11/2020 7:59 AM, Don Goodman-Wilson wrote:
>> On Thu, Jun 11, 2020 at 1:52 PM Michal Suchánek <msuchanek@suse.de> wrote:
>>> Indeed, the flexibility to choose the name of the default branch can be
>>> helpful for projects with specific naming, especially non-english
>>> speaking projects.
>>>
>>> To that end I would suggest adding -b argument to git init to be able to
>>> choose the default branch name per project. This should select the
>>> initial branch name and also write the it as the default branch name in
>>> the repo configuration (if git continues to treat the default branch
>>> specially).
>>>
>>> This can be used in documentation to use the new name immediately
>>> without breaking existing workflows that rely on the 'master' branch.
>> 
>> I _really_ like this idea (and your reasoning). Seconded.
>
> Yes, adding a -b|--branch option would be an excellent addition to
> the config option.

In the ideal world, users should be able to just set init.defaultBranchName in ~/.gitconfig once and forget about it. But it is expected that some projects and their tools may heavily depend on the assumption that the primary branch is called 'master'. Giving a command line override like "init -b" (and do not forget to do the same for "clone" as necessary) is a good escape hatch for members of such projects.

Good.