Rename "master" branch to "main"?

[Zack Weinberg]

On Tue, Jun 30, 2020 at 2:10 PM Carlos O'Donell via Libc-alpha
<libc-alpha@sourceware.org> wrote:
> As we approach the release boundary for 2.32 we come to a natural point
> where we can rename our development and release branch.
>
> Red Hat CTO Chris Wright wrote about this recently:
> https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/making-open-source-more-inclusive-eradicating-problematic-language
>
> LWN also wrote about this recently in "Loaded terms in free software":
> https://lwn.net/Articles/823224/
>
> Github is committed to changing the default development branch to "main":
> https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1271253144442253312
>
> There are open requests for Gitlab to adopt "main" as the default branch name:
> https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/220906
> https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/222204
>
> My proposal would be to rename the development and current release branch:
>
> * master -> main
>
> * release/2.32/master -> release/2.32/main

I think this is an appropriate change for us to make, and that the
existing requests for other organizations to make this or a similar
change are sufficient evidence for us to do so as well.  We do not
need to know that someone who might contribute to *this project* was
put off by the name "master"; we do know that people have been put off
by Git's use of that name, in other contexts, enough to speak up in
those contexts.  Changing it before we are specifically asked shows
that we are paying attention to these issues as they arise in the
larger community.

That said I think this is not as important as other, similar, changes
we could make.  For instance, the term "master" is used _along with_
"slave" in manual/terminal.texi, and I fully intend to rewrite that
chapter to eliminate that terminology as soon as I find the time.
Anyone want to beat me to it?

zw