Git Stash Management

Stash current changes

git stash

Stash with message

git stash save "Work in progress on feature X"

Stash including untracked files

git stash -u

Stash including ignored files

git stash -a

Stash only staged changes

git stash --staged

List stashes

git stash list

Show stash contents

git stash show

Show stash diff

git stash show -p

Show specific stash

git stash show stash@{1}

Apply latest stash

git stash apply

Apply specific stash

git stash apply stash@{2}

Apply and remove stash (pop)

git stash pop

Pop specific stash

git stash pop stash@{1}

Create branch from stash

git stash branch new-branch-name

Drop specific stash

git stash drop stash@{1}

Clear all stashes

git stash clear

Stash partial changes

git stash -p

Interactive mode - choose hunks to stash:

• y - stash this hunk
• n - don't stash
• q - quit
• a - stash this and all remaining
• s - split hunk

Apply stash to different branch

# Create new branch
git checkout -b new-feature

# Apply stash
git stash apply stash@{0}

Stash with keep index

git stash --keep-index

View stash as patch

git stash show -p stash@{0} > stash.patch

Apply patch

git apply stash.patch

Stash specific files

git stash push -m "message" file1.txt file2.txt

Stash everything except specific files

git stash push --all -- ':!file-to-keep.txt'

Check if stash is needed

git diff-index --quiet HEAD || echo "You have uncommitted changes"

View stash stats

git stash show --stat

Common workflow

# Working on feature, need to switch to hotfix
git stash save "WIP: feature X"

# Switch to main branch
git checkout main

# Create hotfix branch
git checkout -b hotfix

# ... make hotfix ...

# Back to feature
git checkout feature-branch
git stash pop

Stash automation script

#!/bin/bash
# Auto-stash before checkout

BRANCH=$1
if [ -n "$(git status --porcelain)" ]; then
    echo "Stashing changes..."
    git stash save "Auto-stash before switching to $BRANCH"
    git checkout $BRANCH
    echo "To restore: git stash pop"
else
    git checkout $BRANCH
fi

Interactive stash selection

# Using fzf (if installed)
git stash list | fzf | cut -d: -f1 | xargs git stash show -p

Recover dropped stash

# List all unreachable commits
git fsck --unreachable | grep commit

# View commit
git show <commit-hash>

# Recover as stash
git stash apply <commit-hash>

Stash naming convention

git stash save "feature/login: WIP on OAuth integration"
git stash save "bugfix/user-api: Testing DB connection"
git stash save "chore/docs: Update README"

Compare stashes

git diff stash@{0} stash@{1}

Stash in script

#!/bin/bash
# Safely stash, run command, then restore

STASH_NAME="auto-stash-$$"

# Stash if there are changes
if ! git diff-index --quiet HEAD; then
    git stash save "$STASH_NAME"
    STASHED=1
fi

# Run your command
./run-tests.sh

# Restore if we stashed
if [ "$STASHED" = "1" ]; then
    git stash pop
fi

Best practices

# Always use descriptive messages
git stash save "Detailed description of what's stashed"

# Review stash before popping
git stash show -p

# Clean up old stashes
git stash list
git stash drop stash@{5}

# Use stash for quick experiments
git stash
# try something
git stash pop