New Git repository has no "master" branch

Question

I just created a new git repository and only did one commit. Now I do not see a master branch. These are roughly the commands I ran.

• git init
• git checkout -b dev
• (I made some changes to the monitored directory)
• git add --all
• git commit -m "a message"

Now when I do a "git branch -a" I do not see a master and if I do "git checkout -b master" I get an error. After reading "fatal: Not a valid object name: 'master'" I see that this is expected behavior. My understanding is that it is typical (and desirable) for repositories to have a master branch.

So I have 2 questions. What are the steps that I should have followed to keep the master branch? What should I do now to get the master branch back?

Thank you in advance for any help
Joe

Answer 1

The "master" branch has no special status. You can create it or delete it whenever you want just like you would with any other branch.

You'd have gotten a master if you'd committed before creating a branch yourself (so if you'd done your step 2 after the first commit).

Now if you just:

git checkout -b master

You'll have a master branch.