init: allow specifying the initial branch name for the new repository

There is a growing number of projects and companies desiring to change
the main branch name of their repositories (see e.g.
https://twitter.com/mislav/status/1270388510684598272 for background on
this).

To change that branch name for new repositories, currently the only way
to do that automatically is by copying all of Git's template directory,
then hard-coding the desired default branch name into the `.git/HEAD`
file, and then configuring `init.templateDir` to point to those copied
template files.

To make this process much less cumbersome, let's introduce a new option:
`--initial-branch=<branch-name>`.

Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 27 insertions, 6 deletions

diff --git a/builtin/init-db.c b/builtin/init-db.c
index 0b7222e718..8fdfc334ac 100644
--- a/builtin/init-db.c
+++ b/builtin/init-db.c
@@ -203,6 +203,7 @@ void initialize_repository_version(int hash_algo)
 
 static int create_default_files(const char *template_path,
 				const char *original_git_dir,
+				const char *initial_branch,
 				const struct repository_format *fmt)
 {
 	struct stat st1;
@@ -258,15 +259,26 @@ static int create_default_files(const char *template_path,
 		die("failed to set up refs db: %s", err.buf);
 
 	/*
-	 * Create the default symlink from ".git/HEAD" to the "master"
-	 * branch, if it does not exist yet.
+	 * Point the HEAD symref to the initial branch with if HEAD does
+	 * not yet exist.
 	 */
 	path = git_path_buf(&buf, "HEAD");
 	reinit = (!access(path, R_OK)
 		  || readlink(path, junk, sizeof(junk)-1) != -1);
 	if (!reinit) {
-		if (create_symref("HEAD", "refs/heads/master", NULL) < 0)
+		char *ref;
+
+		if (!initial_branch)
+			initial_branch = "master";
+
+		ref = xstrfmt("refs/heads/%s", initial_branch);
+		if (check_refname_format(ref, 0) < 0)
+			die(_("invalid initial branch name: '%s'"),
+			    initial_branch);
+
+		if (create_symref("HEAD", ref, NULL) < 0)
 			exit(1);
+		free(ref);
 	}
 
 	initialize_repository_version(fmt->hash_algo);
@@ -383,7 +395,8 @@ static void validate_hash_algorithm(struct repository_format *repo_fmt, int hash
 }
 
 int init_db(const char *git_dir, const char *real_git_dir,
-	    const char *template_dir, int hash, unsigned int flags)
+	    const char *template_dir, int hash, const char *initial_branch,
+	    unsigned int flags)
 {
 	int reinit;
 	int exist_ok = flags & INIT_DB_EXIST_OK;
@@ -425,7 +438,11 @@ int init_db(const char *git_dir, const char *real_git_dir,
 
 	validate_hash_algorithm(&repo_fmt, hash);
 
-	reinit = create_default_files(template_dir, original_git_dir, &repo_fmt);
+	reinit = create_default_files(template_dir, original_git_dir,
+				      initial_branch, &repo_fmt);
+	if (reinit && initial_branch)
+		warning(_("re-init: ignored --initial-branch=%s"),
+			initial_branch);
 
 	create_object_directory();
 
@@ -528,6 +545,7 @@ int cmd_init_db(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	const char *template_dir = NULL;
 	unsigned int flags = 0;
 	const char *object_format = NULL;
+	const char *initial_branch = NULL;
 	int hash_algo = GIT_HASH_UNKNOWN;
 	const struct option init_db_options[] = {
 		OPT_STRING(0, "template", &template_dir, N_("template-directory"),
@@ -541,6 +559,8 @@ int cmd_init_db(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		OPT_BIT('q', "quiet", &flags, N_("be quiet"), INIT_DB_QUIET),
 		OPT_STRING(0, "separate-git-dir", &real_git_dir, N_("gitdir"),
 			   N_("separate git dir from working tree")),
+		OPT_STRING('b', "initial-branch", &initial_branch, N_("name"),
+			   N_("override the name of the initial branch")),
 		OPT_STRING(0, "object-format", &object_format, N_("hash"),
 			   N_("specify the hash algorithm to use")),
 		OPT_END()
@@ -652,5 +672,6 @@ int cmd_init_db(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	UNLEAK(work_tree);
 
 	flags |= INIT_DB_EXIST_OK;
-	return init_db(git_dir, real_git_dir, template_dir, hash_algo, flags);
+	return init_db(git_dir, real_git_dir, template_dir, hash_algo,
+		       initial_branch, flags);
 }