[Mesa-dev] Rename "master" branch to "main"?

[Jason Ekstrand]

If it's helpful (I think it is), Google has published the following
document as part of their Android developer documentation:

https://source.android.com/setup/contribute/respectful-code

It provides not only lists of terms but also suggestions for
replacements.  It's all context-specific, of course, so doing a simple
search-and-replace likely isn't going to work.  However, I think such
documents are helpful for guiding the discussion.

--Jason

On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 10:30 AM Jason Ekstrand <jason at jlekstrand.net> wrote:
>
> All,
>
> I'm sure by now you've all seen the articles, LKML mails, and other
> chatter around inclusive language in software.  While mesa doesn't
> provide a whole lot of documentation (hah!), we do have a website, a
> code-base, and a git repo and this is something that we, as a project
> should consider.
>
> What I'm proposing today is simply re-naming the primary Git branch
> from "master" to "main".  Why "main"?  Because that's what GitHub has
> chosen "main" as their new default branch name and so it sounds to me
> like the most likely new default.
>
> As far as impact on the project goes, if and when we rename the
> primary branch, the old "master" branch will be locked (no
> pushing/merging allowed) and all MRs will have to be re-targeted
> against the new branch.  Fortunately, that's very easy to do.  You
> just edit the MR and there's a little drop-down box at the top for
> which branch it targets.  I just tested this with one of mine and it
> seems to work ok.
>
> As far as other bits of language in the code-base, I'm happy to see
> those cleaned up as people have opportunity.  I'm not aware of any
> particularly egregious offenders.  However, changing the name of the
> primary branch is something which will cause a brief hiccup in
> people's development process and so warrants broader discussion.
>
> Thoughts?