Moving away from Master as the default name for Branches in Git

Over the last few weeks there has been ongoing discussion within the Git project and teams at Bitbucket, Gitlab, GitHub and other industry providers about Git's use of 'master' as the default name for the first branch that is created on a repository.

'Master' appears to be an inherited reference from BitKeeper which was adapted from a common technological analogy where asymmetric data & process relationships are described. Unfortunately, this analogy also evokes the painful history of human slavery and is considered offensive by some members of our community.

We at Atlassian believe that using more descriptive and inclusive language will improve the Bitbucket experience, and support the changes that the Software Freedom Conservancy and the Git project have proposed, including specifying the default name used for the first branch.

While waiting for these changes to be made by the Git project, Atlassian will make it easier for users of Bitbucket Cloud, Server and Data Center to define their preferred default branch names for new repositories via our UI.

To follow our progress on the above changes, take a look at our public issues tracking this topic:

• Bitbucket Cloud
• Bitbucket Server

And for those teams that want to change their default branch names on existing repositories today, please check out these links below:

• How to change your main branch on Bitbucket Cloud
• Using branches in Bitbucket Cloud
• Using branches in Bitbucket Server