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Changing the default branch

If you have more than one branch in your repository, you can configure any branch as the default branch.

People with admin permissions to a repository can change the default branch for the repository.

About changing the default branch

You can choose the default branch for a repository. The default branch is the base branch for pull requests and code commits. For more information about the default branch, see "About branches."

Note: If you use the Git-Subversion bridge, changing the default branch will affect your trunk branch contents and the HEAD you see when you list references for the remote repository. For more information, see "Support for Subversion clients" and git-ls-remote in the Git documentation.

Prerequisites

To change the default branch, your repository must have more than one branch. For more information, see "Creating and deleting branches within your repository."

Changing the default branch

  1. On your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, navigate to the main page of the repository.
  2. Under your repository name, click Settings. Repository settings button
  3. In the left menu, click Branches. Repository options sub-menu
  4. In the default branch drop-down, choose the new default branch. Default branch dropdown selector
  5. Click Update.