[gmx-developers] Renaming git "master" to "main"

[Eric Irrgang]

Also note: most of the occurrences in the repository of the string "master" refer to external projects or APIs or to internal code. There are a few dozen occurrences that pertain specifically to the GROMACS branch in scripts or other automation details, and a few dozen more in various public documentation included in the repo.

I don't know how many external packagers and dependent projects might perform automated testing against the gromacs development branch. But I know that such tests are infrequent in many cases, so the lead time may be less important than clear announcements of the change so that people can figure out what's going on when their automated builds start failing.

Another potential audience is system administrators, but probably only when trying to determine whether a problem is from a bug that has already been fixed upstream. Still, that may serve as a reminder that the "current"/"latest" online docs should be updated, as well as the docs in `main`/`master`.

Maybe the change should be scheduled to coincide with 2022.1?

> On Mar 18, 2022, at 12:13 PM, Eric Irrgang <ericirrgang at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> For most people, I think it is as simple as `git branch -d master; git fetch; git checkout main`. But for core developers and for external packagers, this is pretty short notice.
> 
> It seems like it would be good to give at least a few days of notice, or to keep both `master` and `main` for some transition period. (I don't know how much GitLab does automatically for a branch name change. Maybe the savings in branch-name-based access control updates is significant?)
> 
> An alternative for a good time to make the switch would be when forking release-2023.
> 
> But, personally, now is as good a time as any, and I don't mind chasing down a few broken links next week.
> 
>> On Mar 18, 2022, at 11:43 AM, Erik Lindahl <erik.lindahl at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi devs,
>> 
>> We have considered this in the past, but since we were then in a very active phase of development we postponed it - but this might be a good period to do it when we're not dashing against any particular hard deadline with tons of development.
>> 
>> Several large open source projects have switched from using master/slave terminology due to the historical origin of the names, and to move towards a more inclusive culture. One can of course argue it's merely words, but I prefer to see it the other way - precisely because it's just words and a very minor inconvenience for us, I would like us to avoid relying on words that strongly remind others of oppression and racism.
>> 
>> Most of these things can be handled through MRs as we go, but renaming our master branch will require one manual step for developers tracking the branch. I've pasted the required commands below. 
>> 
>> My *suggestion* would be that we do this e.g. this Sunday noon Swedish time (mostly because it should only be 30 seconds of resync), but we can of course also postpone it if people prefer to - just let us know in that case.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> 
>> Erik
>> 
>> 
>> Local actions required when master changes to main:
>> 
>> # Switch to the "master" branch:
>> $ git checkout master
>> 
>> # Rename it to "main":
>> $ git branch -m master main
>> 
>> # Get the latest commits (and branches!) from the remote:
>> $ git fetch
>> 
>> # Remove the existing tracking connection with "origin/master":
>> $ git branch --unset-upstream
>> 
>> # Create a new tracking connection with the new "origin/main" branch:
>> $ git branch -u origin/main
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Erik Lindahl <erik.lindahl at dbb.su.se>
>> Professor of Biophysics, Dept. Biochemistry & Biophysics, Stockholm University
>> Science for Life Laboratory, Box 1031, 17121 Solna, Sweden
>> 
>> Note: I frequently do email outside office hours because it is a convenient time for me to write, but please do not interpret that as an expectation for you to respond outside your work hours.
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