Hi! I recently left the library world and started working at GitHub, and I just wanted to clarify that while this is being worked on, the switch has not yet been pulled! Our engineers are working hard to make they are dotting their "i"s and crossing their "T"s so nothing unexpected happens when this change is rolled out. I believe this will happen in about another month.
Here is the "official" statement we have right now: --- We are actively working alongside the Git project itself, as well as other version control vendors, on making three changes in GitHub: (1) we are changing the default branch name for new repos away from 'master' (2) we are making it easy for users to choose their own default branch name for all new repos created (3) we are releasing guidance and tools for users who may choose to rename their default branch in existing repos. --- There have been many organizations that have gone ahead and successfully made this change to their existing repositories already, but I just want to be clear that this change hasn't happened yet on GitHub's end. Tammy Metz, MLIS Developer Support Engineer GitHub ---------------------------------------- From: "Caffrey-Hill, Julia" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2020 11:05 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [CODE4LIB] Anti-racist terminology changes: update "master" to "main" branch Hi Code4Lib Community, GitHub recently announced changes to its default branch name, from "master" to "main". This CNET article by Shelby Brown<https://www.cnet.com/news/microsofts-github-is-removing-coding-terms-like-master-and-slave/> covered these and other anti-racist terminology changes occurring in the larger dev community as proposed by Una Kravets, Google Chrome developer. GitHub will not update existing repositories. For this reason, I suggest the following updates: * Update the name of the default branch of your code repositories' and your organizations' repositories from "master" to "main". It is easy to rename the default branch. I recommend these instructions written by Alexis Moody<https://dev.to/afrodevgirl/replacing-master-with-main-in-github-2fjf>. I followed these for my personal repositories, adding a git status, git pull beforehand, and it was very straightforward. For group or organization repositories, you may want to coordinate timing with other maintainers. * Update your documentation. If your documentation contains references to the "master" branch, these should be updated. Your support in moving to terminology without historical baggage or racist symbolism would benefit present and future developers who fork or update code. It's also shorter! While this small update is not exhaustive of what we can do to be a more inclusive community, it would bring us into alignment with a decision made by GitHub, a platform Code4Lib uses that has taken a stand against racism. Please contact me if you want a video tutorial demonstrating to do this, or if you would like me to add it as an issue in a Code4Lib community repository. Thanks, Julia Caffrey-Hill Web Services Librarian Towson University Twitter: @jcaffreyhill
