title: Change a Git remote HEAD to point to something besides master
body: <p>How do I set a Git remote's HEAD reference to point to something besides "master"?</p>
  
  <p>My project has a policy not to use a "master" branch (all branches are to have meaningful names). Furthermore, the canonical master repository is only accessible via ssh://, with no shell access (like GitHub or Unfuddle).</p>
  
  <p>My problem is that the remote repository still has a HEAD reference to refs/heads/master, but I need it to point to a different branch.  This is causing two problems:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>When cloning the repo, there this, </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>warning: remote HEAD refers to nonexistent ref, unable to checkout.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>That's confusing and inconvenient.</p></li>
  <li><p>The web-based code browser depends on HEAD as a basis for browsing the tree. I need HEAD to point to a valid branch, then.</p></li>
  </ol>