GIT: How to Save Your Changes Temporarily

There are lots of situations where a clean working copy is recommended or even required: when merging branches, when pulling from a remote, or simply when checking out a different branch.

The "git stash" command can help you to (temporarily but safely) store your uncommitted local changes - and leave you with a clean working copy.

git stash: a Clipboard for Your Changes

Let's say you currently have a couple of local modifications:

$ git status
  modified:   index.php
  modified:   css/styles.css

If you have to switch context - e.g. because you need to work on an urgent bug - you need to get these changes out of the way. You shouldn't just commit them, of course, because it's unfinished work.

This is where "git stash" comes in handy:

$ git stash
Saved working directory and index state WIP on master:
   2dfe283 Implement the new login box
HEAD is now at 2dfe283 Implement the new login box

Your working copy is now clean: all uncommitted local changes have been saved on this kind of "clipboard" that Git's Stash represents. You're ready to start your new task (for example by pulling changes from remote or simply switching branches).

Continuing Where You Left Off

As already mentioned, Git's Stash is meant as a temporary storage. When you're ready to continue where you left off, you can restore the saved state easily:

$ git stash pop

The "pop" flag will reapply the last saved state and, at the same time, delete its representation on the Stash (in other words: it does the clean-up for you).