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Rename README.md to custom name and use as a project description

I do apologize if similar question already put, but I haven't found one.

I would like to change the default project description file name (called README.md) to be a custom name (let's say XXX.md) and I wonder if it is possible to be the XXX.md the initial readme file for the project (typical situation: you open the project Code page and you will see the content of XXX.md down at bottom).

I would like to verify if this approach possible in general, but I am mainly interested in Github and Bitbucket services. I briefly checked project settings and I cannot find there such customization. Is it even possible?

Solution

  • GitHub, at least, doesn't provide the ability to do this. It is possible to use a different format (e.g., README.asciidoc or README.rst), but the root file must be called README.

    Note that you can include other text markup documents like this and they'll be rendered if they're visited, it's just that they won't appear at the bottom of the file listing like a README will.