I use master and apprentice. Always two there are, no more, no less.

Treat branches like Chinese dynasties. The mainline branch is the one having the mandate of heaven.

I’m fairly confident the random branches I spin off to try out a dumb idea are not equal to main.

I'm... I'm not sure that's the flex you think it is.

Imagine the mess in a thousand people project where all branches are "equal"

I do whatever work wants me to do. you want "main" or "icecream" as the production branch, whatever.

I'll keep using master for all my personal repos because it's a master record of the source from which all other branches are derived. it's like the difference between "read" and "read". spelled the same but completely different definitions.

I think 'master' is fine for the master branch. It's a master copy of the codebase.

I think 'main' is fine for the main branch. It's the main branch of the repo.

I use 'main' at work cos that's what my git client defaults to. I use 'master' at home because that's what my git client defaults to. 🤷‍♂️

I’ve started converting my ‘master’ branches to ‘main’, due to the fact that my muscle-memory has decided that ‘main’ is the standard name. And I don’t have strong feelings either was

Someone suggested queen and worker. Luffy and then branches named after crew members also seemed nice. Another suggested dom and sub. Leader and cultist were other suggestions. For any StarCraft mod it should be Kerrigan and Raynor, or OverMind and Zerg, or for the later stages Amon and Protoss.

I love all those suggestions. Keeps things interesting and conveys the same thing.

... Has anyone adopted a 'Master' - 'Padawan' paradigm?

Why not call it trunk and make it all tree themed

git config --global init.defaultBranch main

The next release branch is the one i am currently working on. No need to merge it back to the other one

i just call my main git branches trunk

Real talk, "master" refers to a "master copy" from which new branches are can be made from. If one of these branches becomes "better" than the current master copy, it gets "merged" into the master copy effectively replacing it as the new master copy (sometimes totally, sometimes partially).

Edit: Pretty sure basically everyone here knows this, but I figured it could not hurt to put the explanation here.