Renaming “Master” to “Main” on Gitlab for More Inclusive Software Development

I found a few good resources on this topic today. First, a step by step via Brendan O’Leary. And then, the main post on Gitlab here. Why should you care about this? Well, the CS (Computer Science) and EE (Electrical Engineering) worlds have long used the terminology of “master” vs “slave” in how computer architectures get defined. That creates a permanent micro-aggression within your software development teams for some of your employees. So any efforts that coders make to remove it is a really good idea — especially if you care about attracting and retaining the best tech talent in the world.

It’s fairly easy to do on Gitlab, and a whole lot less scary when you’re just starting a brand new repo. The one thing I had a hard time finding in the walkthroughs was being confused by sidebar menu labeled “Repository” hoping to find the “Settings” because of my dyslexia. Note where not to look:

And note where you *should* be looking in the “Settings” sidebar menu (scroll downwards) to find “Repository”:

Okay! You should be fine to follow all the instructions that are in those two articles highlighted above. Also, take note that’s missing in the instructions how you can’t delete the master branch from the command line prompt. No worries. It’ll tell you that with its usual directness:

remote: GitLab: You can only delete protected branches using the web interface

So do it from the web interface. It feels really good when you press that “trash” icon!

And when this alert comes up where you get to “permanently delete the protected branch master” comes up, it has a kind of significance that I wonder if the UX writer really new …

Learn more about Product Inclusion from the experts Annie Jean Baptiste and Kat Holmes! And preorder is now available for Kevin Bethune‘s new book entitled “Reimagining Design.”