Can the 'master' branch be deleted?

WesleyRosenblum · 2021-02-08T21:49:05.878Z

Existing links to the ‘master’ branch result in 404 errors now. For example: clusterfuzz/build_afl.bash at master · google/clusterfuzz · GitHub

If the ‘master’ branch is deleted, GitHub will automatically redirect requests to the ‘main’ branch.

tstellar · 2021-02-08T22:34:37.289Z

If the ‘master’ branch is deleted, GitHub will automatically redirect requests to the ‘main’ branch.

Have you seen this work? I did not think it had been implemented yet.

WesleyRosenblum · 2021-02-08T22:47:07.597Z

Yes, here is an example: s2n-tls/s2n.h at main · aws/s2n-tls · GitHub

See Links to deleted branches now redirect to the default branch | GitHub Changelog

tstellar · 2021-02-08T23:06:30.000Z

[WesleyRosenblum] WesleyRosenblum http://discourse.llvm.org/u/wesleyrosenblum
February 8

Yes, here is an example: s2n-tls/api/s2n.h at main · aws/s2n-tls · GitHub https://github.com/awslabs/s2n/blob/master/api/s2n.h

See Links to deleted branches now redirect to the default branch - GitHub Changelog https://github.blog/changelog/2020-07-17-links-to-deleted-branches-now-redirect-to-the-default-branch/

OK, I see you are talking about web links. I was hoping this was working now
for pushes, but it doesn’t look like it.

-Tom

WesleyRosenblum · 2021-02-08T23:13:11.482Z

I was hoping this was working now for pushes

Is that a blocker for deleting master?

tstellar · 2021-02-09T02:16:20.490Z

Is that a blocker for deleting master?

Yes, we had it deleted for a few days, but people kept pushing to it and re-creating it. For now we just have a place holder branch that is empty to prevent this from happening.

danilaml · 2023-07-20T07:30:52.263Z

Resurrecting this. After two and a half years it seems to be OK to delete now (and perhaps github introduced some new functionality that would prevent the creation of the branches with certain names)?

akorobeynikov · 2023-07-20T19:52:50.286Z

We are now have rules that disallows branch creations (besides release branches). I removed master. Let’s see how the things will go.

Thanks for reminder!