NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

git stash list [<options>]
git stash show [<options>] [<stash>]
git stash drop [-q|--quiet] [<stash>]
git stash ( pop | apply ) [--index] [-q|--quiet] [<stash>]
git stash branch <branchname> [<stash>]
git stash [push [-p|--patch] [-k|--[no-]keep-index] [-q|--quiet]
         [-u|--include-untracked] [-a|--all] [-m|--message <message>]
         [--] [<pathspec>…​]]
git stash clear
git stash create [<message>]
git stash store [-m|--message <message>] [-q|--quiet] <commit>

DESCRIPTION

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

The modifications stashed away by this command can be listed withgit 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 …​", butyou can give a more descriptive message on the command line whenyou create one.

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

OPTIONS

• push [-p|—patch] [-k|—[no-]keep-index] [-u|—include-untracked] [-a|—all] [-q|—quiet] [-m|—message ] [—] […​]
• Save your local modifications to a new stash entry and roll themback to HEAD (in the working tree and in the index).The part is optional and givesthe 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 misspelledsubcommand from making an unwanted stash entry. The two exceptions to thisare stash -p which acts as alias for stash push -p and pathspecs,which are allowed after a double hyphen — for disambiguation.

When pathspec is given to git stash push, the new stash entry records themodified states only for the files that match the pathspec. The indexentries and working tree files are then rolled back to the state inHEAD only for these files, too, leaving files that do not match thepathspec intact.

If the —keep-index option is used, all changes already added to theindex are left intact.

If the —include-untracked option is used, all untracked files are alsostashed and then cleaned up with git clean, leaving the working directoryin a very clean state. If the —all option is used instead then theignored files are stashed and cleaned in addition to the untracked files.

With —patch, you can interactively select hunks from the diffbetween HEAD and the working tree to be stashed. The stash entry isconstructed such that its index state is the same as the index stateof your repository, and its worktree contains only the changes youselected interactively. The selected changes are then rolled backfrom your worktree. See the “Interactive Mode” section ofgit-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.

• save [-p|—patch] [-k|—[no-]keep-index] [-u|—include-untracked] [-a|—all] [-q|—quiet] []

• This option is deprecated in favour of git stash push. Itdiffers from "stash push" in that it cannot take pathspecs,and any non-option arguments form the message.

• list []

• List the stash entries that you currently have. Each stash entry islisted with its name (e.g. stash@{0} is the latest entry, stash@{1} isthe one before, etc.), the name of the branch that was current when theentry was made, and a short description of the commit the entry wasbased 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 [] []

• Show the changes recorded in the stash entry as a diff between thestashed contents and the commit back when the stash entry was firstcreated. When no <stash> is given, it shows the latest one.By default, the command shows the diffstat, but it will accept anyformat known to git diff (e.g., git stash show -p stash@{1}to view the second most recent entry in patch form).You can use stash.showStat and/or stash.showPatch config variablesto change the default behavior.

• pop [—index] [-q|—quiet] []

• Remove a single stashed state from the stash list and apply iton top of the current working tree state, i.e., do the inverseoperation of git stash push. The working directory mustmatch the index.

Applying the state can fail with conflicts; in this case, it is notremoved from the stash list. You need to resolve the conflicts by handand call git stash drop manually afterwards.

If the —index option is used, then tries to reinstate not only the workingtree’s changes, but also the index’s ones. However, this can fail, when youhave conflicts (which are stored in the index, where you therefore can nolonger apply the changes as they were originally).

When no <stash> is given, stash@{0} is assumed, otherwise <stash> mustbe a reference of the form stash@{<revision>}.

• apply [—index] [-q|—quiet] []

• 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 bystash push or stash create.

• branch []

• Creates and checks out a new branch named <branchname> starting fromthe commit at which the <stash> was originally created, applies thechanges recorded in <stash> to the new working tree and index.If that succeeds, and <stash> is a reference of the formstash@{<revision>}, it then drops the <stash>. When no <stash>is given, applies the latest one.

This is useful if the branch on which you ran git stash push haschanged enough that git stash apply fails due to conflicts. Sincethe stash entry is applied on top of the commit that was HEAD at thetime git stash was run, it restores the originally stashed statewith no conflicts.

• clear

• Remove all the stash entries. Note that those entries will thenbe subject to pruning, and may be impossible to recover (seeExamples below for a possible strategy).

• drop [-q|—quiet] []

• Remove a single stash entry from the list of stash entries.When no <stash> is given, it removes the latest one.i.e. stash@{0}, otherwise <stash> must be a valid stashlog reference of the form stash@{<revision>}.

• create

• Create a stash entry (which is a regular commit object) andreturn its object name, without storing it anywhere in the refnamespace.This is intended to be useful for scripts. It is probably notthe command you want to use; see "push" above.

• store

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

DISCUSSION

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

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

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

EXAMPLES

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

However, there are cases in which your local changes do conflict withthe upstream changes, and git pull refuses to overwrite yourchanges. 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 anddemands that you fix something immediately. Traditionally, you wouldmake a commit to a temporary branch to store your changes away, andreturn 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 ormore commits out of the changes in the work tree, and you want to testeach 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'

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

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

SEE ALSO

git-checkout[1],git-commit[1],git-reflog[1],git-reset[1],git-switch[1]

GIT

Part of the git[1] suite