What exactly is the default git branch-CodePudding

Is this a native git concept?

I've been researching this for a while and cannot seem to understand? All I get is Github documentation, and just that master is the initial default branch.

If possible, can someone please explain what this concept means native git-wise.

EDIT: For instance, what setting or idea makes one particular branch the default one ( not necessarily the initial one, but on an ongoing basis ) , and how would one change it outside of something like Github

My intuition is telling me it's where HEAD is pointing to ( in a repository you clone and merge back into, like a bare repository on a server ) in a more general sense, is this close?

Ty!

CodePudding user response：

Is this a native git concept?

No. It's a GitHub (and other host) concept. It goes with pull requests, which are also not a Git concept.

When you make a pull request at GitHub, you push a branch; what branch should GitHub offer, by default, to merge your pull request branch into? That is the default branch.

CodePudding user response：

I know, Github documentation is a bit technical and only related to their features.

Branches are not a GitHub concept but a source code repository concept. The default branch name in Git is master (nowadays main).

From https://www.git-tower.com/learn/git/glossary/master:

In Git, "master" is a naming convention for a branch. After cloning (downloading) a project from a remote server, the resulting local repository has a single local branch: the so-called "master" branch. This means that "master" can be seen as a repository's "default" branch.

This main branch represents the live/production version of your project. Typically, any project changes will go into feature branches first. Feature branches result in pull requests and are merged into master after review.

Learn more about branches on docs.github.com (sorry!).
Create your own repository to play with, go to https://github.com/new. For the start, refer to https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/quickstart/hello-world.
Check out available tutorials, e.g. on Youtube, Codecademy, etc. They are better than GitHub documentation. Your starting point could be https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/git-and-github-for-beginners/.