Most git repos I work with use main as the default branch name. So I get in the habit of running git checkout main. However, there are a few I regularly work with that don't use main, which is fine. But old habits die hard. This leads to a confusing error message:
$ git checkout main
error: pathspec 'main' did not match any file(s) known to git
The good news is, git has a feature that lets you symlink a branch (aka a ref). For example, if you're working in a repo where the main branch is called canary, you can do the following:
$ git symbolic-ref refs/heads/main refs/heads/canary
$ git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/main refs/remotes/origin/canary
Now you won't get the error and attempting to checkout main will work as you expect:
$ git checkout main
Switched to branch 'main'
Is there anything git can't do? 😄