Advanced Tools: Rebase, Stash, Cherry-pick and Tags

The Problem: How to Shelve Unfinished Work

• A sudden bugfix interrupts your work
• You can't commit incomplete code
• Git stash — temporary storage for changes
• Tracks both staged and unstaged files
• Returns the working directory to a clean state

Imagine: you're in the middle of working on a new feature when a critical bugfix comes in. You don't want to leave your work half-finished, but you can't commit incomplete code either. This is exactly what git stash is for — your digital temporary shelf. It's like pausing a game: your current progress is saved, and you can attend to other matters. When you return, everything will be exactly as you left it, including untracked files if you didn't forget the -u flag. This saves you from having to keep multiple tasks in mind at once.

Saving and Viewing Changes

• git stash save — saves changes to the stash
• git stash list — shows the list of saved changes
• Each stash is assigned a unique ID
• stash@{0} — most recently saved change
• The stash preserves the working directory state

Let's explore how to work with git stash in practice. The command git stash save will save all changes in the working directory and staged files, returning you to a clean state. Your work won't be lost — it will go into a special storage area. To verify that your changes have been saved, run git stash list. You'll see a list of all stashed tasks with unique identifiers like stash at zero. This is particularly useful when you need to quickly switch between tasks without losing progress.

# Save current changes
git stash save "WIP: New feature login form"

# Check the list of saved changes
git stash list

# View the contents of the latest stash
git stash show -p

Recovering Stashed Changes

• git stash pop — applies and removes the most recent stash
• git stash apply — applies without removing
• Code conflicts may occur
• Conflicts must be resolved manually
• stash@{n} — refers to a specific stash

When you're ready to return to your stashed work, you have two options. The git stash pop command will apply the most recent stashed changes and remove them from the stash list. If you want to review the changes or apply them multiple times, use git stash apply — the changes will remain in the stash. Important: if the code has changed since you created the stash, conflicts may occur. In this case, Git will alert you to the problem, and you'll need to resolve the conflicts manually.

# Restore the most recent stashed changes
git stash pop

# OR apply without removing
git stash apply

# Apply a specific stash by index
git stash apply stash@{1}