10 Jun
2025
10 Jun
'25
4:42 a.m.
I agree with Guus and was about to comment on similar lines.
I would second this. Apart from the non-technical
motivation: the
XSF's repos are one of the only ones that I still use that use
'master' rather than 'main'. Where my muscle memory previously
disliked 'main', it now dislikes 'master'.
My muscle memory, too, has come to expect 'main', and when I see
'master' my first (unfounded) impression is that this is an old repo or
some king of legacy project.
We would be far from the first to apply such a change.
Tooling has
matured well over the years to make the change pretty easy. I hope
that this helps to take away most concerns that are of a technical nature.
Adding
to this: there are many web pages explaining specifically how to
change the "master" to "main", including this one that I found from a
quick web search. It seems simple enough:
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/easily-rename-your-git-default-branch-from-m…
You are probably all aware that the use of this term has raised
controversy in
recent years, as it can be perceived as a reference to slavery
(see https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master%E2%80%93slave_(technology)#Controversy
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master%E2%80%93slave_(technology)#Controversy>
for
instance).
I wasn't aware of that controversy. But if those connotations are indeed
there I'd be happy to see the name changed, even on non-technical grounds :)
Best,
Badri