Changing kubernetes/kubernetes default branch name to `main`

[justaugustus]

Enhancement Description

• One-line enhancement description (can be used as a release note): Changing kubernetes/kubernetes default branch name to main
• Kubernetes Enhancement Proposal:
• Discussion Link:
  • https://groups.google.com/a/kubernetes.io/g/steering/c/8fy8omuKdpM
  • Changing default branch names to main org#2222
• Primary contact(s) (assignee):
  • @justaugustus
  • @cpanato
• Responsible SIGs: @kubernetes/sig-release-admins @kubernetes/wg-naming
• Enhancement target (which target equals to which milestone):
  • Alpha release target (x.y): v1.24
  • Beta release target (x.y): N/A
  • Stable release target (x.y): N/A
• Alpha
  • KEP (k/enhancements) update PR(s):
  • Code (k/k) update PR(s):
  • Docs (k/website) update PR(s):

Please keep this description up to date. This will help the Enhancement Team to track the evolution of the enhancement efficiently.

[justaugustus]

/assign @justaugustus @cpanato
/sig release
/area release-eng
/wg naming
/milestone v1.24

[liggitt]

What's the downstream impact of tools and processes and developers using the master branch? Will GitHub redirect those automatically or will they all need to be modified?

[cpanato]

when we make the branch rename, all PRs that point to the master branch will be updated automatically to the main branch

for the local dev the users will need to update the branch to point to the new one, GitHub have a page to explain in how to do that https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/configuring-branches-and-merges-in-your-repository/managing-branches-in-your-repository/renaming-a-branch#updating-a-local-clone-after-a-branch-name-changes

[liggitt]

what about all CI flows, sync flows, and downstream consumers of the kubernetes/kubernetes repo?

[cpanato]

ci/sync flows on our side we will make the changes and we can monitor issues

for downstream consumers will be more tricky, we will communicate the change but not sure how to deal with that

in the GitHub UI when you access the fork GH notifies the branch changed in the upstream, so users can notice that

[liggitt]

for downstream consumers will be more tricky, we will communicate the change but not sure how to deal with that

It's important to understand the scope of that impact for the highest-use repo we have. Is there a way to quantify or survey how much would break on this rename?

[cpanato]

I don't know how we can do that, maybe we can send an announcement to our mailing list and spread the word via social media?
Also, GitHub give some alerting https://github.com/github/renaming

• Show a notice to repository contributors, maintainers, and admins on the repository homepage with instructions to update local copies of the repository
• Show a notice to contributors who git push to the old branch
• Redirect web requests for the old branch name to the new branch name
• Return a "Moved Permanently" response in API requests for the old branch name