CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gitgit-extensionsgit-worktree
Mhd
Mhd

Reputation: 2978

Git: alternative for stash

I'm using Git Extensions for my projects. I really like it. There is an issue that keeps bugging me and I'm pretty sure there is a trick in Git Extensions for it. Here is the scenario:

Can I make many stashes in different branches?
If not, whats the alternative for stash?
Is commit and revert commit my only option here?

Upvotes: 6

Views: 5272

Answers (2)

Tim Biegeleisen
Tim Biegeleisen

Reputation: 521249

You can keep track of your stashes and apply them in any order you wish. While on branch A type:

git stash save "stash_a"

You can similarly name stashes from branches B and C. You can list all stashes by typing

git stash list

To apply a certain stash you can use

git stash pop stash@{n}

where n is the index of the stash. Use the names you gave to correlate stashes with their respective indices in the stack.

You mentioned the following:

I don't want to commit changes in A because I'm not done yet and I don't want this commit to appear in commit history.

Actually, there is nothing wrong with making a commit, because you can always amend that commit later on with no consequences, assuming that you either haven't pushed, or if you have pushed, that the branch isn't shared. So an alternative to using git stash on branch A would actually be to just do this:

git commit -m 'WIP'

Then, when you return to branch A and complete the task, commit via this:

git commit --amend

Note that doing git stash actually creates 2 (or sometimes 3) commits under the hood. So both methods I described rely on making commits in some way. The worktree answer given by the @CodeWizard might be an alternative to using commits.

Upvotes: 2

CodeWizard
CodeWizard

Reputation: 142094

git worktree

Git worktree was introduced in 2007 under the contrib folder in git repo and was called new-workdir.

for example:

git worktree add <second path>

will create another folder on your computer which allow you to work on different branch simultaneously.

git worktree will create 2 separate working folders separated from each other while pointing to the same repository.

This will allow you do to any experimentals on the new worktree without having any effect on the repository itself. In the attached image you can see that there are 2 separate working folder but both of them are using a single repo and share the content.

Here is a sample on how to create new worktree and what is the result of it:

enter image description here

Can I make many stashes in different branches?

Yes you can but you want to avoid it. You can pop up stash to different branches than the one you originally stahed the sources.

If not, whats the alternative of stash?

As explained above - use worktree

Is commit and revert commit, my only option here?

Again: As explained above - use worktree

Upvotes: 10

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