git-stash(1)

—

NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

bash

git stash\n list [<log-options>]
\ngit stash\n show [-u | --include-untracked | --only-untracked] [<diff-options>] [<stash>]
\ngit stash\n drop [-q | --quiet] [<stash>]
\ngit stash\n pop [--index] [-q | --quiet] [<stash>]
\ngit stash\n apply [--index] [-q | --quiet] [<stash>]
\ngit stash\n branch <branchname> [<stash>]
\ngit stash\n [push [-p | --patch] [-S | --staged] [-k | --[no-]keep-index] [-q | --quiet]
\n
             [-u | --include-untracked] [-a | --all] [(-m | --message) <message>]
\n
             [--pathspec-from-file=<file> [--pathspec-file-nul]]
\n
             [--] [<pathspec>...]]
\ngit stash\n save [-p | --patch] [-S | --staged] [-k | --[no-]keep-index] [-q | --quiet]
\n
             [-u | --include-untracked] [-a | --all] [<message>]
\ngit stash\n clear
\ngit stash\n create [<message>]
\ngit stash\n store [(-m | --message) <message>] [-q | --quiet] <commit>

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

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.

list [<log-options>]

bash

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>]

pop [--index] [-q|--quiet] [<stash>]

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>]

branch <branchname> [<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

drop [-q|--quiet] [<stash>]

create

store

OPTIONS

-a, --all

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

--only-untracked

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

--index

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

All changes already added to the index are left intact.

-p, --patch

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

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>

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

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

Quiet, suppress feedback messages.

Separates pathspec from options for disambiguation purposes.

<pathspec>...

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>

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:

bash


\n
       .----W
\n
      /    /
-----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

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:

bash

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

Interrupted workflow

bash

# ... 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:

bash

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

Testing partial commits

bash

# ... 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

bash

# ... 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

bash

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

stash.showPatch

stash.showStat

GIT

Part of the git(1) suite

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

COMMANDS

OPTIONS

DISCUSSION

EXAMPLES

CONFIGURATION

SEE ALSO

GIT