Tribblix: manual page: git-stash.1

GIT-STASH(1) Git Manual GIT-STASH(1)

NAME

git-stash - Stash the changes in a dirty working directory away

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Use git stash when you want to record the current state of the
working directory and the index, but want to go back to a clean
working directory. The command saves your local modifications away
and reverts the working directory to match the HEAD commit.

The modifications stashed away by this command can be listed with git
stash list, inspected with git stash show, and restored (potentially
on top of a different commit) with git stash apply. Calling git stash
without any arguments is equivalent to git stash push. A stash is by
default listed as "WIP on branchname ...", but you can give a more
descriptive message on the command line when you create one.

The latest stash you created is stored in refs/stash; older stashes
are found in the reflog of this reference and can be named using the
usual reflog syntax (e.g. stash@{0} is the most recently created
stash, stash@{1} is the one before it, stash@{2.hours.ago} is also
possible). Stashes may also be referenced by specifying just the
stash index (e.g. the integer n is equivalent to stash@{n}).

COMMANDS

push [-p|--patch] [-S|--staged] [-k|--[no-]keep-index]
[-u|--include-untracked] [-a|--all] [-q|--quiet] [(-m|--message)
<message>] [--pathspec-from-file=<file> [--pathspec-file-nul]] [--]
[<pathspec>...]
Save your local modifications to a new stash entry and roll them
back to HEAD (in the working tree and in the index). The
<message> part is optional and gives the description along with
the stashed state.

For quickly making a snapshot, you can omit "push". In this mode,
non-option arguments are not allowed to prevent a misspelled
subcommand from making an unwanted stash entry. The two
exceptions to this are stash -p which acts as alias for stash
push -p and pathspec elements, which are allowed after a double
hyphen -- for disambiguation.

save [-p|--patch] [-S|--staged] [-k|--[no-]keep-index]
[-u|--include-untracked] [-a|--all] [-q|--quiet] [<message>]
This option is deprecated in favour of git stash push. It differs
from "stash push" in that it cannot take pathspec. Instead, all
non-option arguments are concatenated to form the stash message.

list [<log-options>]
List the stash entries that you currently have. Each stash entry
is listed with its name (e.g. stash@{0} is the latest entry,
stash@{1} is the one before, etc.), the name of the branch that
was current when the entry was made, and a short description of
the commit the entry was based on.

stash@{0}: WIP on submit: 6ebd0e2... Update git-stash documentation
stash@{1}: On master: 9cc0589... Add git-stash

The command takes options applicable to the git log command to
control what is shown and how. See git-log(1).

show [-u|--include-untracked|--only-untracked] [<diff-options>]
[<stash>]
Show the changes recorded in the stash entry as a diff between
the stashed contents and the commit back when the stash entry was
first created. By default, the command shows the diffstat, but it
will accept any format known to git diff (e.g., git stash show -p
stash@{1} to view the second most recent entry in patch form). If
no <diff-option> is provided, the default behavior will be given
by the stash.showStat, and stash.showPatch config variables. You
can also use stash.showIncludeUntracked to set whether
--include-untracked is enabled by default.

pop [--index] [-q|--quiet] [<stash>]
Remove a single stashed state from the stash list and apply it on
top of the current working tree state, i.e., do the inverse
operation of git stash push. The working directory must match the
index.

Applying the state can fail with conflicts; in this case, it is
not removed from the stash list. You need to resolve the
conflicts by hand and call git stash drop manually afterwards.

apply [--index] [-q|--quiet] [<stash>]
Like pop, but do not remove the state from the stash list. Unlike
pop, <stash> may be any commit that looks like a commit created
by stash push or stash create.

branch <branchname> [<stash>]
Creates and checks out a new branch named <branchname> starting
from the commit at which the <stash> was originally created,
applies the changes recorded in <stash> to the new working tree
and index. If that succeeds, and <stash> is a reference of the
form stash@{<revision>}, it then drops the <stash>.

This is useful if the branch on which you ran git stash push has
changed enough that git stash apply fails due to conflicts. Since
the stash entry is applied on top of the commit that was HEAD at
the time git stash was run, it restores the originally stashed
state with no conflicts.

clear
Remove all the stash entries. Note that those entries will then
be subject to pruning, and may be impossible to recover (see
Examples below for a possible strategy).

drop [-q|--quiet] [<stash>]
Remove a single stash entry from the list of stash entries.

create
Create a stash entry (which is a regular commit object) and
return its object name, without storing it anywhere in the ref
namespace. This is intended to be useful for scripts. It is
probably not the command you want to use; see "push" above.

store
Store a given stash created via git stash create (which is a
dangling merge commit) in the stash ref, updating the stash
reflog. This is intended to be useful for scripts. It is probably
not the command you want to use; see "push" above.

OPTIONS

-a, --all
This option is only valid for push and save commands.

All ignored and untracked files are also stashed and then cleaned
up with git clean.

-u, --include-untracked, --no-include-untracked
When used with the push and save commands, all untracked files
are also stashed and then cleaned up with git clean.

When used with the show command, show the untracked files in the
stash entry as part of the diff.

--only-untracked
This option is only valid for the show command.

Show only the untracked files in the stash entry as part of the
diff.

--index
This option is only valid for pop and apply commands.

Tries to reinstate not only the working tree's changes, but also
the index's ones. However, this can fail, when you have conflicts
(which are stored in the index, where you therefore can no longer
apply the changes as they were originally).

-k, --keep-index, --no-keep-index
This option is only valid for push and save commands.

All changes already added to the index are left intact.

-p, --patch
This option is only valid for push and save commands.

Interactively select hunks from the diff between HEAD and the
working tree to be stashed. The stash entry is constructed such
that its index state is the same as the index state of your
repository, and its worktree contains only the changes you
selected interactively. The selected changes are then rolled back
from your worktree. See the "Interactive Mode" section of git-
add(1) to learn how to operate the --patch mode.

The --patch option implies --keep-index. You can use
--no-keep-index to override this.

-S, --staged
This option is only valid for push and save commands.

Stash only the changes that are currently staged. This is similar
to basic git commit except the state is committed to the stash
instead of current branch.

The --patch option has priority over this one.

--pathspec-from-file=<file>
This option is only valid for push command.

Pathspec is passed in <file> instead of commandline args. If
<file> is exactly - then standard input is used. Pathspec
elements are separated by LF or CR/LF. Pathspec elements can be
quoted as explained for the configuration variable core.quotePath
(see git-config(1)). See also --pathspec-file-nul and global
--literal-pathspecs.

--pathspec-file-nul
This option is only valid for push command.

Only meaningful with --pathspec-from-file. Pathspec elements are
separated with NUL character and all other characters are taken
literally (including newlines and quotes).

-q, --quiet
This option is only valid for apply, drop, pop, push, save, store
commands.

Quiet, suppress feedback messages.

--
This option is only valid for push command.

Separates pathspec from options for disambiguation purposes.

<pathspec>...
This option is only valid for push command.

The new stash entry records the modified states only for the
files that match the pathspec. The index entries and working tree
files are then rolled back to the state in HEAD only for these
files, too, leaving files that do not match the pathspec intact.

For more details, see the pathspec entry in gitglossary(7).

<stash>
This option is only valid for apply, branch, drop, pop, show
commands.

A reference of the form stash@{<revision>}. When no <stash> is
given, the latest stash is assumed (that is, stash@{0}).

DISCUSSION

A stash entry is represented as a commit whose tree records the state
of the working directory, and its first parent is the commit at HEAD
when the entry was created. The tree of the second parent records the
state of the index when the entry is made, and it is made a child of
the HEAD commit. The ancestry graph looks like this:

.----W
/ /
-----H----I

where H is the HEAD commit, I is a commit that records the state of
the index, and W is a commit that records the state of the working
tree.

EXAMPLES

Pulling into a dirty tree
When you are in the middle of something, you learn that there are
upstream changes that are possibly relevant to what you are
doing. When your local changes do not conflict with the changes
in the upstream, a simple git pull will let you move forward.

However, there are cases in which your local changes do conflict
with the upstream changes, and git pull refuses to overwrite your
changes. In such a case, you can stash your changes away, perform
a pull, and then unstash, like this:

$ git pull
...
file foobar not up to date, cannot merge.
$ git stash
$ git pull
$ git stash pop

Interrupted workflow
When you are in the middle of something, your boss comes in and
demands that you fix something immediately. Traditionally, you
would make a commit to a temporary branch to store your changes
away, and return to your original branch to make the emergency
fix, like this:

# ... hack hack hack ...
$ git switch -c my_wip
$ git commit -a -m "WIP"
$ git switch master
$ edit emergency fix
$ git commit -a -m "Fix in a hurry"
$ git switch my_wip
$ git reset --soft HEAD^
# ... continue hacking ...

You can use git stash to simplify the above, like this:

# ... hack hack hack ...
$ git stash
$ edit emergency fix
$ git commit -a -m "Fix in a hurry"
$ git stash pop
# ... continue hacking ...

Testing partial commits
You can use git stash push --keep-index when you want to make two
or more commits out of the changes in the work tree, and you want
to test each change before committing:

# ... hack hack hack ...
$ git add --patch foo # add just first part to the index
$ git stash push --keep-index # save all other changes to the stash
$ edit/build/test first part
$ git commit -m 'First part' # commit fully tested change
$ git stash pop # prepare to work on all other changes
# ... repeat above five steps until one commit remains ...
$ edit/build/test remaining parts
$ git commit foo -m 'Remaining parts'

Saving unrelated changes for future use
When you are in the middle of massive changes and you find some
unrelated issue that you don't want to forget to fix, you can do
the change(s), stage them, and use git stash push --staged to
stash them out for future use. This is similar to committing the
staged changes, only the commit ends-up being in the stash and
not on the current branch.

# ... hack hack hack ...
$ git add --patch foo # add unrelated changes to the index
$ git stash push --staged # save these changes to the stash
# ... hack hack hack, finish current changes ...
$ git commit -m 'Massive' # commit fully tested changes
$ git switch fixup-branch # switch to another branch
$ git stash pop # to finish work on the saved changes

Recovering stash entries that were cleared/dropped erroneously
If you mistakenly drop or clear stash entries, they cannot be
recovered through the normal safety mechanisms. However, you can
try the following incantation to get a list of stash entries that
are still in your repository, but not reachable any more:

git fsck --unreachable |
grep commit | cut -d\ -f3 |
xargs git log --merges --no-walk --grep=WIP

CONFIGURATION

Everything below this line in this section is selectively included
from the git-config(1) documentation. The content is the same as
what's found there:

stash.showIncludeUntracked
If this is set to true, the git stash show command will show the
untracked files of a stash entry. Defaults to false. See the
description of the show command in git-stash(1).

stash.showPatch
If this is set to true, the git stash show command without an
option will show the stash entry in patch form. Defaults to
false. See the description of the show command in git-stash(1).

stash.showStat
If this is set to true, the git stash show command without an
option will show a diffstat of the stash entry. Defaults to true.
See the description of the show command in git-stash(1).

GIT

Part of the git(1) suite

Git 2.48.1 2025-01-13 GIT-STASH(1)