Rename master branch to main

[evanmcclure]

Rename master branch to main in order to eradicate biased words in tech.

[kniren]

I'm waiting on news from GitHub to see which actions are they taking to rename "master" to "main" or others. Ideally, this change will not break people's code, scripts, and workflows. This might not be a big issue for standalone repositories in which only the developers of said are working on, but it can be very problematic for libraries. I guess if GitHub where to redirect requests of "master" to the default repository branch this would avoid breakage. There are other issues with this though, as the "git" tool defaults to "master" as the main branch, so if there is no industry consensus, a GitHub level change will not be sufficient to remove the usage of the word.

In other words, I'm OK with this change, but I'm waiting to hear what is the proposed solution from GitHub and the overall approach from the rest of the industry so that we can follow the principle of least surprise.

Philosophically, I do however believe that the word "master" is not biased or racially charged, as the etymology derives from the Latin word "magister" (Scholar), and the usage of "master-slave" is only one of the many meanings of the word. This, to me, feels like a distraction from the real problem that is systemic racism, and the way of tackling that problem in tech is not by changing a word that, in their own context is not biased. We should instead provide more opportunities for people of color, women, and other minorities to work with equal pay and rights and free of discrimination. That is an issue of education and culture and will require much more work than simply changing the default branch name in git.

With that said, if people are not feeling comfortable with the use of the word, I see no reason to keep it (Once the technical hurdles have been addressed), as "main" branch or "primary" branch or whatever they want to call it is a much better name in my opinion.

[evanmcclure]

Why not both? Why not all of it?

When considering the representation and how terms like that make someone else feel, it’s clear what the issue is.

[kniren]

I'm not sure what are you arguing about. Did you read my reply in full @evanmcclure? Quoting myself here:

With that said, if people are not feeling comfortable with the use of the word, I see no reason to keep it (Once the technical hurdles have been addressed), as "main" branch or "primary" branch or whatever they want to call it is a much better name in my opinion.

I'm in no way attached to the word "master", and indeed if the term can be offensive to someone, we can work towards a change in terminology. That by itself is not a problem, although it bears the question, are people feeling offended by sentences such as "having a master's degree"? or "mastering a skill"?

Regardless, this is not the most appropriate forum for an in-depth discussion on the topic. As I said, I'm waiting to see what GitHub's response is before I move forward with a branch name change.