When working with Git, there might be instances where you feel the need to save your current workspace progress and revisit it later while experimenting with other changes or branches. This is where git stash comes into play, allowing you to temporarily shelve (or stash) changes you've made to your working directory so you can work on something else, and then come back and re-apply them later on.

However, reapplying changes with git stash apply can sometimes lead to conflicts or unexpected outcomes, especially if the working directory or branch has changed significantly. It is crucial to understand what changes git stash apply will reinstate into your current working directory. This article covers techniques on how you can preview these changes before actually applying them.

Understanding git stash

Before diving into how to preview stash changes, it's helpful to understand what a stash is. Git stash temporarily saves the changes you've made to your tracked files (i.e., those files that you have added to the staging area with git add) and the changes to files that are already tracked by Git, enabling your working directory and index to return to the state of the last commit.

Previewing Stash Changes

To preview changes in a stash before applying them, you can use several commands and techniques:

1. git stash list:

Start by listing all your stashes:

git stash list

This command displays a list of all your stored stashes.

2. git stash show:

To view a summary of the changes contained in a stash:

git stash show stash@{0}

This command by default shows the names of modified files and the number of insertions and deletions. You can view more detailed information by using git stash show -p stash@{0} or git stash show --patch stash@{0}, which shows the actual diff representing the changes.

3. git diff:

For a more detailed look at what will be applied back into your working directory, use:

git stash show -p stash@{0} | git apply --stat

git apply --stat allows you to simulate applying the diff to your working tree, showing a statistical summary without making actual changes.

4. Checking for potential conflicts:

To check if applying a stash will result in conflicts:

git stash show -p stash@{0} | git apply --check

This command will try to apply the diff to the working directory without making any actual changes. If there are conflicts, it will print messages indicating them.

Additional Considerations

• Stashing Untracked Files: If you have untracked files that were stashed, git stash show will not display changes related to these files unless you used git stash save -u or git stash save --include-untracked. Use git stash show -p to see changes to both tracked and untracked files.
• Multiple Stashes: If you have multiple stashes, replace stash@{0} with the appropriate stash reference, like stash@{1}, stash@{2}, etc.
• Cleaning Up Old Stashes: Consider dropping old stashes that are no longer needed using git stash drop stash@{x}.

Summary Table

Understanding how to preview changes in git stash apply is key in managing your stashes effectively and ensuring that the application of stashes does not disrupt your current work unexpectedly. With these commands and tips, you can navigate stashes more confidently and utilize Git more efficiently in your development workflow.