rename default branch from 'master' to 'main' in refs and test scripts

From: Wing Huang <[email protected]>

Signed-off-by Wing Huang <[email protected]>

	modified:   refs.c
	modified:   remote.c
	modified:   t/test-lib.sh

---
rename default branch from 'master' to 'main' in refs and test scripts

This patch updates Git's default branch name from 'master' to 'main' to align with modern naming conventions adopted across the industry.

* refs.c: Update hardcoded default branch name to 'main'

* remote.c: Update fallback branch name for remote operations

* t/test-lib.sh: Update test suite default to 'main'

Compatibility notes:

* Existing repositories are unaffected
* Users can still set init.defaultBranch=master if preferred
* The change only applies to new git init operations when no explicit branch name is configured

This follows the precedent set when init.defaultBranch configuration was introduced in Git 2.28, which already acknowledged the community's move toward more inclusive default branch names.

Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-1961%2Fhuangsen365%2Fmaster-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-1961/huangsen365/master-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/1961

  refs.c        | 2 +-
  remote.c      | 2 +-
  t/test-lib.sh | 2 +-
  3 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

refs.c +1 -1

index 4ff55cf24f6..929e9ce60c6 100644
@@ -653,7 +653,7 @@ char *repo_default_branch_name(struct repository *r, int quiet)
  		die(_("could not retrieve `%s`"), config_display_key);
 
  	if (!ret) {
-		ret = xstrdup("master");
+		ret = xstrdup("main");
  		if (!quiet)
  			advise_if_enabled(ADVICE_DEFAULT_BRANCH_NAME,
  					  _(default_branch_name_advice), ret);

remote.c +1 -1

index 81d8fc017e1..ffc4089a1c2 100644
@@ -2379,7 +2379,7 @@ struct ref *guess_remote_head(const struct ref *head,
  			return copy_ref(r);
 
  		/* Fall back to the hard-coded historical default */
-		r = find_ref_by_name(refs, "refs/heads/master");
+		r = find_ref_by_name(refs, "refs/heads/main");
  		if (r && oideq(&r->old_oid, &head->old_oid))
  			return copy_ref(r);
  	}

t/test-lib.sh +1 -1

index 621cd31ae1d..4e273a6e94d 100644
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ fi
 
  # Explicitly set the default branch name for testing, to avoid the
  # transitory "git init" warning under --verbose.
-: ${GIT_TEST_DEFAULT_INITIAL_BRANCH_NAME:=master}
+: ${GIT_TEST_DEFAULT_INITIAL_BRANCH_NAME:=main}
  export GIT_TEST_DEFAULT_INITIAL_BRANCH_NAME
 
  ################################################################

base-commit: 1fa68948c3d76328236cac73d2adf33c905bd8e3

Quoted 1 line

* remote.c: Update fallback branch name for remote operations

I think we want to keep the fallback to "master" but check for "main" first. Otherwise we'll stop finding the default branch where the remote is still using master.

remote.c struct ref *guess_remote_head(const struct ref *head, · line 2383

Quoted 7 lines

remote.c +1 -1

@@ -2379,7 +2379,7 @@ struct ref *guess_remote_head(const struct ref *head,
  			return copy_ref(r);
  		/* Fall back to the hard-coded historical default */
-		r = find_ref_by_name(refs, "refs/heads/master");
+		r = find_ref_by_name(refs, "refs/heads/main");
  		if (r && oideq(&r->old_oid, &head->old_oid))
  			return copy_ref(r);

Quoted 5 lines · Phillip Wood

Quoted 1 line

* remote.c: Update fallback branch name for remote operations

I think we want to keep the fallback to "master" but check for "main" first. Otherwise we'll stop finding the default branch where the remote is still using master.

I'm not sure we need to change anything there. Modern Git will generally report the name of the branch pointed to by HEAD back to the client (using either a symref capability in protocol v0 or the symref extension to the ls-refs list in v2). So the fallback would be needed only for very old servers, in which case "master" is probably a better guess.

IIRC, there are cases where v0 does not report the HEAD value when it points to an unborn branch (and while I'd expect most Git servers to always support v2 these days, sometimes the protocol upgrade fails due to things like ssh blocking the GIT_PROTOCOL variable). But I don't think that would affect the fallback code:

Quoted 7 lines

remote.c struct ref *guess_remote_head(const struct ref *head, · line 2383

Quoted 7 lines

remote.c +1 -1

@@ -2379,7 +2379,7 @@ struct ref *guess_remote_head(const struct ref *head,
   			return copy_ref(r);
   		/* Fall back to the hard-coded historical default */
-		r = find_ref_by_name(refs, "refs/heads/master");
+		r = find_ref_by_name(refs, "refs/heads/main");
   		if (r && oideq(&r->old_oid, &head->old_oid))
   			return copy_ref(r);

since it is only about looking for the matching branch name, and not the unborn case.

If we truly have an unborn HEAD on a very old server (with no protocol support), I think we just end up without checking anything out, which means HEAD would default to whatever the local client default is.

-Peff

Quoted 5 lines · Wing Huang via GitGitGadget

From: Wing Huang <[email protected]>

     rename default branch from 'master' to 'main' in refs and test scripts This patch updates Git's default branch name from 'master' to 'main' to align with modern naming conventions adopted across the industry.

Thank you for your interest in this. We're currently planning to change the default branch name when Git 3.0 is released as documented in Documentation/BreakingChanges.adoc.