Post on renaming the default branch of rust-lang/rust

content/inside-rust/renaming-the-default-branch-of-rust-lang-rust.md

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+path = "inside-rust/2025/10/16/renaming-the-default-branch-of-rust-langrust"
+title = "Renaming the default branch of rust-lang/rust"
+authors = ["Jake Goulding"]
+
+[extra]
+team = "the Infra team"
+team_url = "https://www.rust-lang.org/governance/teams/infra#team-infra"
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+
+We will be renaming the default branch of the [rust-lang/rust repository](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust) from `master` to `main` on 2025-11-10. We've chosen `main` specifically as it's the [new default in git][git-change] and the renaming will leverage the [GitHub tooling][github-tooling] built to make this easier.
+
+If you maintain a tool that currently assumes the default branch of `rust-lang/rust` is named `master`, using `HEAD` instead will work both before and after the rename.
+
+After the rename, contributors will need to run the following commands in their local checkout of the repository, assuming that your remote registry is called `origin`:
+
+```bash
+git branch -m master main
+git fetch origin
+git branch -u origin/main main
+git remote set-head origin -a
+
+# optional
+git remote prune origin
+```
+
+If you have a fork of the `rust-lang/rust` repository on GitHub and would like to rename your default branch to match, you can follow [GitHub's instructions][github-how-to-rename].
+
+[git-change]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email protected]/
+
+[github-tooling]: https://github.com/github/renaming
+
+[github-how-to-rename]: https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/configuring-branches-and-merges-in-your-repository/managing-branches-in-your-repository/changing-the-default-branch