git-stash

Git Stash

What is it ?

Stashing is nothing but storing our work in a safe place without including it in a Git Commit History.

# List existing Stashes in Repository
git stash list

Let's say I am working on main branch and while I am working I quickly need to fix a minor bug in bugfix branch. Now, if I were to switch the branch I would get an error message from Git, saying that I have unsaved changes in my working tree and I need to commit them or stash them before switching the branch. Now, that I am not done working with my main branch changes so I dont want to commit them but I still want to keep those changes saved somewhere; Thats when Stashing comes into picture.

# Push Tracked-Unsaved changes to Stash (Won't save Untracked files/directories)
git stash -m "Stash Message"
git stash push -m "Stash Message"

# Push All-Unsaved changes to Stash (Will save Untracked files/directories)
git stash -am "Stash Message"
git stash push -am "Stash Message"

After Stashing the changes, Working tree will be clean and we can switch the branch.

Now, If we want to bring back those changes...

# Bring back changes without deleting Stash
git stash apply stashIndex

# Bring back changes and delete the Stash
git stash pop stashIndex

To see the files that are being modified in a Stash

git stash show stashIndex

Options that are available on git show are available on git stash show as well.

Remove Stash

# Remove particular Stash
git stash drop stashIndex

# Remove all Stashes
git stash clear