nextcloud / nextcloud/server

Please rename the default branch from `master` to `main` to be more inclusive

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#39,810 3 comments 19 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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1. to develop enhancement inclusivity 🌈
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Description

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Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
The branch naming scheme is not very inclusive, and doesn't match the direction the industry is going.

Aside from the arguably most important reason outlined above, these terms are becoming less used and therefore increasingly less compatible as more communities move away from its use (eg [NIST], [Python], [Drupal], [Github] and [Django]. The usage of 'master' and 'slave' in hardware and software has been halted by the Los Angeles County Office of Affirmative Action, the Django community, the Python community and several other programming languages. This was done because the language is offensive and hurts people in the community [Django2]. Root operator Internet Systems Consortium also stopped using the terms [ISC].
-- ref: ietf - draft-knodel-terminology-13

Describe the solution you'd like
I'd like to see the default branch changed from master to main. We recently did this at the nextcloud/helm repo and it just required us to update our ci/cd workflows and do a quick update our documentation. Both were just a search and replace of the word master to main. Any users with the current branch bookmarked or hardcoded will be redirected when they actually go to the old link.

GitHub also has a guide here: https://github.com/github/renaming

Describe alternatives you've considered
We could also use another name for the default branch instead of master, like default or core or release or primary.

Additional context
If there's any help needed on this front, I'm happy to lend a hand :)

Contributor guide

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First steps

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  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by searching the repository's CI/CD workflows and documentation for references to master, then review GitHub's branch-renaming guide. Done means the default branch is changed to main and the relevant workflow and documentation references are updated.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
git, github-actions
Domain
ci-cd, documentation
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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