Hi all,

Just FYI for those with GitHub Pages sites, I ran into a stumbling block
renaming default branches. Support was helpful and gave me this information
(that I couldn't find elsewhere):

> For now, you can publish a GitHub Pages project site (i.e. one NOT named
<username>.github.io) from the master branch, the /docs folder on the
master branch,
or the gh-pages branch. In your case if you simply rename the branch from
ghpages to gh-pages then you will be able to select it as the publishing
source for your repository.

For the conference website, I deleted master and then spent a while trying
to figure out how to build pages off of a different branch, which wasn't
possible until I created a gh-pages branch.

Best,
Eric


On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 5:10 AM Demian Katz <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Thanks for the update, Tammy!
>
> Can you clarify whether there is an existing mechanism, or future plans,
> for redirecting from one branch name to another?
>
> My use case is this: I am interested in making the branch name change, but
> my project has close to a decade of legacy in terms of links to specific
> code files in GitHub (in wiki pages, ticket comments, listserv messages,
> etc.). Many of these links include the branch name "master," and cleaning
> them all up is probably impossible (I can't change history in listserv
> archives, for example, but those old messages still contain valid/useful
> information that people actively rely on). Even those links that are within
> my control are distributed across multiple systems and could take a long
> time to comprehensively track down and fix, so having a transition plan
> would be really helpful.
>
> I'd love to be able to move away from master going forward, but to have
> pre-existing master links seamlessly redirect to a new branch name instead
> of just 404ing. Otherwise, I'm caught in the uncomfortable situation of
> weighing the costs and benefits of keeping the name (and alienating people
> through potentially offensive terminology) vs. changing the name (and
> potentially alienating people through the frustration of broken links when
> they are looking for solutions).
>
> I’m hoping that this situation is being accounted for in your planning,
> but I also recognize that it might not be trivially easy to support. I'd
> love to hear that there's already a solution for this use case, though;
> that would make my week. 😉
>
> In any case, thanks for your support!
>
> - Demian
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Tammy Metz
> Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2020 2:38 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [CODE4LIB] Anti-racist terminology changes: update
> "master" to "main" branch
>
> 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" <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2020 11:05 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 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://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnet.com%2Fnews%2Fmicrosofts-github-is-removing-coding-terms-like-master-and-slave%2F&amp;data=02%7C01%7Cdemian.katz%40VILLANOVA.EDU%7Cba3cba051ebb402bafd908d81936db8f%7C765a8de5cf9444f09cafae5bf8cfa366%7C0%7C1%7C637287070692755763&amp;sdata=MRMVWY8OGFyYMROsT2b2MWNWnsNEjqOJre1QrHQmVNk%3D&amp;reserved=0>
> 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://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdev.to%2Fafrodevgirl%2Freplacing-master-with-main-in-github-2fjf&amp;data=02%7C01%7Cdemian.katz%40VILLANOVA.EDU%7Cba3cba051ebb402bafd908d81936db8f%7C765a8de5cf9444f09cafae5bf8cfa366%7C0%7C1%7C637287070692755763&amp;sdata=%2FiLMMSo1IODNhoylr5ubBV4Ukr87y2yraM%2B59t1m158%3D&amp;reserved=0>.
> 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
>
>