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Git stash

Imagine Developer A is working on a new feature on the develop branch. Developer B suddenly reports a critical bug that must be fixed immediately on main. Developer A’s feature isn’t finished yet, so they don’t want to commit it — but they need a clean working area to switch branches. This is exactly what git stash is for. It temporarily shelves (stashes) changes so you can switch context and come back to your work later.
Stashes pile up like a queue (FIFO). You can keep pushing changes onto the stash and apply or pop them when you’re ready.

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Stash commands

# Stash changes
git stash
git stash push
git stash save "message"

# Apply stashed changes
git stash apply                              # re-apply without removing from stash
git stash pop                                # apply and remove the latest stash
git stash pop stash@{1}                      # apply a specific stash
git stash branch <branch-name> stash@{1}    # create a branch from a stash entry

# List all stashes
git stash list

# Inspect a stash
git stash show                               # summary of changes
git stash show -p                            # full diff of the stash

# Remove stashes
git stash clear                              # remove all stashes
git stash drop stash@{1}                     # remove a specific stash
Use git stash branch <branch-name> stash@{1} if you expect conflicts when popping your stash. It creates a new branch from the stash, avoiding conflicts with your current working tree.

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stash push

When you run git stash (or git stash push), Git saves your current working directory and staged changes to the stash stack, leaving you with a clean working area.

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