Git stash advanced usage

Need to temporarily save work in progress, including untracked files, with the ability to find and restore it later.

Git stash beyond the basics:

# Basic stash
git stash                    # Stash tracked changes
git stash -u                 # Include untracked files
git stash -a                 # Include ignored files too

# Named stash (much easier to find later)
git stash push -m "WIP: login form validation"

# Stash specific files
git stash push -m "API changes" src/api/ src/types/

# Interactive stash (choose hunks)
git stash push -p            # Patch mode - select what to stash

# List stashes
git stash list
# stash@{0}: On feature/auth: WIP: login form validation
# stash@{1}: On main: API changes

# View stash contents
git stash show stash@{0}     # Summary
git stash show -p stash@{0}  # Full diff

# Apply and keep in stash list
git stash apply stash@{0}

# Apply and remove from stash list
git stash pop stash@{0}

# Apply to a different branch
git checkout other-branch
git stash apply stash@{0}

# Create branch from stash
git stash branch new-branch stash@{0}

# Drop specific stash
git stash drop stash@{1}

# Clear all stashes
git stash clear

Tip: Always use -m with descriptive messages. Without it, stashes are identified only by the auto-generated description.

Stash is essential for context switching, but unnamed stashes quickly become unidentifiable. Named stashes and partial stashing make it a powerful workflow tool.

Git workflow when needing to temporarily set aside work