Change default branch via CLI

Question

I have been looking for a way to change the default branches of a bunch of my repositories (>50). Thus I am trying to make a bash script to do it for me.

However every answer I find, e.g. Deleting remote master branch, refused due to being the current branch, tells me to "go to the setting page on GitHub".

Can you do it without the UI?

You can do it through the _API_ - per e.g. https://stackoverflow.com/q/52776313/3001761 - which you could certainly do from a bash script. Or do you mean the specific GitHub CLI, in which case did you [read the fine manual](https://cli.github.com/manual/gh_repo_edit)? — jonrsharpe, Dec 30 '22 at 10:30

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 30 '22 at 14:03

You can do it directly with the gh repo edit command of the GitHub CLI like this:

gh repo edit {owner}/{repo} --default-branch main

or if you have set a default remote repository, you can execute the command in the local repository without specifying the owner & repository:

gh repo edit --default-branch main

Please note that the new default branch must already exist, otherwise there will be a validation error.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 30 '22 at 10:34

0

So deep down the rabbit call of the API doc I found that you can do such thing:

gh api repos/{owner}/{repo} --method PATCH --field 'default_branch=main' --silent

answered Dec 30 '22 at 10:34

David Muñoz Tord

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If you're using the GitHub CLI you don't _need_ to do it via the API. – jonrsharpe Dec 30 '22 at 10:47
Well can you tell how then ? I've look at the docs but nothing works there. – David Muñoz Tord Dec 30 '22 at 10:51
I linked to it in the comment on the question. If you tried the docs and it doesn't work, that should be _in the question_ as part of showing your research. – jonrsharpe Dec 30 '22 at 10:52

Change default branch via CLI

2 Answers2