Version Control | VoidX Academy

8. Git Stash — Saving Work in Progress

Workflow

Git Stash — Saving Work in Progress

You are halfway through a feature when your manager asks you to drop everything and fix an urgent bug in production. You can't commit half-finished code. You don't want to delete your changes. Git stash is a temporary shelf — it saves your incomplete work so you can switch contexts cleanly and come back later.

📦 Stashing and Restoring

Save all current uncommitted changes to the stash. Your working directory is now clean.

git stash

Switch to the urgent fix, apply it, commit, and push:

git checkout main
git checkout -b hotfix/payment-crash
# ... make the fix ...
git add . && git commit -m "hotfix: fix null crash in payment processor"
git checkout main
git merge hotfix/payment-crash
git push

Return to your feature branch and restore your stashed work. Your half-finished code is back exactly as you left it:

git checkout feature/dashboard
git stash pop

📋 Managing Multiple Stashes

Stash with a descriptive message:

git stash push -m "WIP: half-finished search autocomplete"

See all stashes:

git stash list

Apply a specific stash (without removing it from the list):

git stash apply stash@{1}

Apply the most recent stash and remove it from the list:

git stash pop

Delete a stash you no longer need, or delete ALL stashes:

git stash drop stash@{0}
git stash clear

8. Git Stash — Saving Work in Progress

Git Stash — Saving Work in Progress

📦 Stashing and Restoring

📋 Managing Multiple Stashes

Knowledge Check

8. Git Stash — Saving Work in Progress

Git Stash — Saving Work in Progress

📦 Stashing and Restoring

📋 Managing Multiple Stashes

Knowledge Check