title: git root branches... how do they work?
body: <p>I was reading up on <a href="http://pages.github.com/" rel="noreferrer">http://pages.github.com/</a> and one thing caught my eye:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>If you create a new root branch named gh-pages in your repository, any content pushed there will be published to [url]</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I searched everywhere for information about root branches, but there don't seem to be many resources on this.  Does anybody know how to best explain what root branches are?</p>
  
  <p>My current understanding is that if there are two root branches, they essentially represent two 'repositories' within one repository.  Is this accurate?</p>