When starting a new repo, git seems to insist that the first commit be made on a branch named "master": $ git --version git version 1.7.9 $ git init git-test Initialized empty Git repository in /home/mhagger/tmp/git-test/.git/ $ cd git-test $ git checkout -b foo fatal: You are on a branch yet to be born I would call this a bug; the last command should be allowed. The plumbing allows it: $ git symbolic-ref HEAD refs/heads/foo Michael -- Michael Haggerty mhagger@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://softwareswirl.blogspot.com/ -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html