git stash Tutorial

The short version

git stash temporarily shelves your uncommitted work so you can switch tasks and come back later.

Good use cases

• you need to jump to another branch quickly
• the work is not ready to commit yet
• you want to preserve a short-lived experiment without keeping it in the working tree

Common operations

Save current work

git stash push -m "wip: login form"

Inspect stash entries

git stash list

Reapply the latest stash

git stash apply

Reapply and remove it

git stash pop

Inspect what a stash contains

git stash show -p stash@{0}

apply vs pop

• apply: restore but keep the stash entry
• pop: restore and delete it if successful

If you are not fully sure yet, apply is usually the safer option.

Two practical habits

Always add a message

git stash push -m "wip: checkout flow"

That makes git stash list much easier to read later.

Prefer apply before deleting

For important work, restoring first and deleting later is often safer than using pop immediately.