Difference between "git push origin master" and "git push origin main instead"

Question

I worked on php Project and i want to upload into "github" I am new in Github, I want to know that what is difference between "git push origin master" and "git push origin main" ?

Thank you in advance.

no difference. "master" and "main" are branch names. It can be "foo", "soup" or anything else. — Marcin Orlowski, Feb 02 '23 at 08:30
What do you mean "the difference"? These are variable names. What's the difference between variable `foo` and variable `bar`? Different identifiers, that's all. — Romain Valeri, Feb 02 '23 at 08:31
Does this answer your question? [Why does "git push main" work on GitHub when "git push master" does not? Also what is difference between "Main branch" and "Master branch"?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64249491/why-does-git-push-main-work-on-github-when-git-push-master-does-not-also-wh) — snakecharmerb, Feb 02 '23 at 09:02
@MarcinOrlowski "*these are not a variable names*"? What was that? — Romain Valeri, Feb 02 '23 at 09:15
Plain literal string being git's argument representing name of the branch to operate on. — Marcin Orlowski, Feb 11 '23 at 13:30

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 02 '23 at 08:37

2

git push origin master is pushing the code to the master branch. git push origin main is pushing the code to the main branch.

answered Feb 02 '23 at 08:37

Sukma Dewa · Answer 2 · 2023-02-02T08:46:21.300

2

Origin and Master are two different terminologies used when working and managing the git projects.

Origin is the name used for the remote repository.

Master / Main is the name of the branch.

edited Feb 02 '23 at 08:46

answered Feb 02 '23 at 08:45

Sukma Dewa

21
3

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 02 '23 at 08:44

Both are the names of branches on a repository on Git.

The master branch is the main branch on the code repository and now it is famous as the Main branch in Git.

So when you add changes to your repository You can use git push origin master or git push origin main in your repository.

If suppose you have name dev as branch name then you need to use that name like :

git push origin dev

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 02 '23 at 08:55

Like others have answered before: main or master is just name of a branch. It can have an arbitrary name and which one is to be considered the "main" branch is up to convention.

Earlier versions of git used master so a lot of older repositories use this name. In recent times, main is favored.

It's really up to the individual project which branch to use.

There are also political issues involved. From a practical point of view, main is shorter by two letters so it saves some typing.

Difference between "git push origin master" and "git push origin main instead"

4 Answers4