How to set develop branch as default in Github instead of master?

Question

I know this can be done on the Admin page of a repository. Another default branch can be set there. And that would be the answer of this question.

But I discovered (mayb

Answer 1

This is a git "feature"

I just tested it with local repo, and while the HEAD of my first repo test is "develop":

C:\Users\VonC\Documents\GitHub\test>git symbolic-ref HEAD
refs/heads/develop

... the name of the default branch cloned in test1 is master!

C:\Users\VonC\Documents\GitHub\test1>git branch -a
* master
  remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/develop
  remotes/origin/master

See "How do I change a Git remote HEAD to point to something besides “master”":
From the cloned repo perspective, HEAD on the remote origin repo references both master and develop:

C:\Users\VonC\Documents\GitHub\test1>git ls-remote origin
c215dd28ea8bf9b0c6b522c784b70bbbb3e858a5        HEAD
c215dd28ea8bf9b0c6b522c784b70bbbb3e858a5        refs/heads/develop
c215dd28ea8bf9b0c6b522c784b70bbbb3e858a5        refs/heads/master

And the order for determining the default branch of a cloned repo is:

• HEAD references refs/heads/master and that exists -> you get a local branch called master, starting from origin/master
• HEAD references refs/heads/anotherBranch and that exists -> you get a local branch called anotherBranch, starting from origin/anotherBranch