Git Stash

Table of contents

1. What Is Stash?
2. Immediate Practice
3. Essential Commands
4. Typical Use Case

1. What Is Stash?

Git stash = Temporarily save your UNCOMMITTED modifications.

Analogy: It is like putting your things in a secret drawer before doing something else.

Why?

• You are coding on feature-A
• EMERGENCY: critical bug on main
• You do not want to commit half-finished code
• Solution: git stash → switch → fix → come back → git stash pop

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2. Immediate Practice

mkdir demo-stash && cd demo-stash
git init

echo "print('v1')" > app.py
git add . && git commit -m "Initial version"

# You start coding
echo "print('work in progress')" >> app.py

# EMERGENCY! You have to switch branch
git stash                    # Save the WIP
git status                   # Clean working directory!

# Do something else...
git checkout -b hotfix
echo "print('CRITICAL FIX')" > fix.py
git add . && git commit -m "Urgent fix"

# Go back to the original work
git checkout main
git stash pop               # Recover the work in progress

Magic! Your modifications are back.

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3. Essential Commands

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4. Typical Use Case

Classic situation:

1. You are coding peacefully
2. Colleague: "There's a bug in prod!!!"
3. You: git stash
4. Quick fix and deploy
5. You: git stash pop
6. You continue as if nothing happened

Stash = Your best friend for interruptions!

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