How to get master/main branch from gitpython

Question

How one can know about the master/main branch at git remote with git-python.

I am aware that we can iterate over the heads of the repository and then check the results. Something like

repo = git.Repo('git-repo')
remote_refs = repo.remote().refs

for refs in remote_refs:
    print(refs)

This will give list of all branch heads at remote including the main/master branch.

Is their a direct way to get the main branch?

Does this answer your question? [Checkout or list remote branches in GitPython](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2473035/checkout-or-list-remote-branches-in-gitpython) — ddejohn, Oct 20 '21 at 19:02
What do you mean by "get" here? Checkout? Pull? Something else? — ddejohn, Oct 20 '21 at 19:03
by get i mean , to know which is the main branch , whether `main` or `master` is the main branch — John Byro, Oct 20 '21 at 19:09
What if a repo has both branches? Why not try checking out both? — ddejohn, Oct 20 '21 at 19:10
Thats the issue , how would someone know which is the main branch? — John Byro, Oct 20 '21 at 19:11
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16500461/how-do-i-find-the-default-branch-for-a-repository-using-the-github-v3-api — ddejohn, Oct 20 '21 at 19:13
That is in my knowledge , is their a way to get the same from `git-python`? — John Byro, Oct 20 '21 at 19:14
Right. So if you've checked the documentation and haven't found an answer... — ddejohn, Oct 20 '21 at 19:25
[this](https://gitpython.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reference.html#git.refs.head.Head) looks like the answer — John Byro, Oct 20 '21 at 19:30
Not to me. Using the github API will be a much easier approach. Gitpython doesn't look to have anything that deals with a github repo's default branch (which is a github thing, not a git thing). — ddejohn, Oct 20 '21 at 19:33

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 27 '22 at 18:00

Git itself doesn't have a concept of a "main branch". It has a default name for the first branch that is created but you can rename it as you wish, create more branches from the first commit and let them all head in their own directions.

The concept of a "main branch" is really only relevant in the central repository management systems such as GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket.

So if you want the branch that is considered the "main branch" by those systems, you'd have to use their API to query the name of that branch for the project in question.

So the answer is no, there is no way to find the "default branch" with git-python, as there isn't even a way to do that with git itself.

How to get master/main branch from gitpython

1 Answers1