Replaced "main" by "master"

[theokoester]

The default branch is normally called master, not main.

With "main" there is an error:
error: src refspec main does not match any

Why:

What's being changed:

Check off the following:

• All of the tests are passing.
• I have reviewed my changes in staging.
• For content changes, I have reviewed the localization checklist
• For content changes, I have reviewed the Content style guide for GitHub Docs.

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[FloorD]

@tvachkov the change to main is a deliberate one: https://github.com/github/renaming, and https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53050955 👍

[mitsuhiko]

It would be better to name the branch explicitly on init considering the default branch name can be reconfigured.

I agree the current guide appears broken.

[theokoester]

I agree on that - main is deliberated. But since the guide advices to call git init with no parameter for --initial-branch=<branch-name> resp. -b <branch-name>' this falls back to the default name: master.

Then one gets the error: src refspec main does not match any.

[mitsuhiko]

@tvachkov i think the right fix would be to change the init call to git init -b main. Github itself is changing the default branch name to main at the moment and git is making the default branch name reconfigurable. Considering that can cause confusion and a bad user experience, i think it's better to be explicit here on branch creation.

Also it's pretty evident that main is the preferred branch name now.

[janiceilene]

@tvachkov Thanks for opening a PR and thanks everyone else for the thoughtful conversation about the right wording in this article! I'll triage this for review 💖

[megbird]

Thank you for picking up what we missed ⚡

[megbird]

Leaving another review because I had the diff backwards. As pointed out, the change from master to main was deliberate. We cannot merge any mentions of master in our content. See https://github.com/github/renaming for more information.

The right solution for this would be to use git init -b main when a user first initializes a repo. We can publish that change in this PR or you can open a new PR for that change.

[infin8x]

Agree with @megbird that git init -b main is the right change to make here - thanks!

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[janiceilene]

@tvachkov Would you like to make the changes @megbird layed out in her comment #408 (review)? Thanks so much for taking the time to help us make these changes 💖

[janiceilene]

Thanks so much for making these updates @tvachkov! I'll get this branch updated and merge it once the tests are passing 🍏

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