[git] Stashing only staged changes in git - is it possible?

Is there a way I can stash just my staged changes? The scenario I'm having issues with is when I've worked on several bugs at a given time, and have several unstaged changes. I'd like to be able to stage these files individually, create my .patch files, and stash them away until the code is approved. This way, when it's approved I can stash my entire (current) session, pop that bug and push the code.

Am I going about this the wrong way? Am I misunderstanding how git can work in other ways to simplify my process?

In this scenario, I prefer to create new branches for each issue. I use a prefix temp/ so I know that I can delete these branches later.

git checkout -b temp/bug1

Stage the files that fix bug1 and commit them.

git checkout -b temp/bug2

You can then cherry pick the commits from the respective branches as require and submit a pull request.

Out of your comments to Mike Monkiewicz answer I suggest to use a simpler model: Use regular development branches, but use the squash option of the merge to get a single commit in your master branch:

git checkout -b bug1    # create the development branch
* hack hack hack *      # do some work
git commit
* hack hack hack *
git commit
* hack hack hack *
git commit
* hack hack hack *
git commit
git checkout master     # go back to the master branch
git merge --squash bug1 # merge the work back
git commit              # commit the merge (don't forget
                        #    to change the default commit message)
git branch -D bug1      # remove the development branch

The advantage of this procedure is that you can use the normal git work flow.

Why don't you commit the change for a certain bug and create a patch from that commit and its predecessor?

# hackhackhack, fix two unrelated bugs
git add -p                   # add hunks of first bug
git commit -m 'fix bug #123' # create commit #1
git add -p                   # add hunks of second bug
git commit -m 'fix bug #321' # create commit #2

Then, to create the appropriate patches, use git format-patch:

git format-patch HEAD^^

This will create two files: 0001-fix-bug-123.patch and 0002-fix-bug-321.patch

Or you can create separate branches for each bug, so you can merge or rebase bug fixes individually, or even delete them, if they don't work out.

I made a script that stashes only what is currently staged and leaves everything else. This is awesome when I start making too many unrelated changes. Simply stage what isn't related to the desired commit and stash just that.

(Thanks to Bartlomiej for the starting point)

#!/bin/bash

#Stash everything temporarily.  Keep staged files, discard everything else after stashing.
git stash --keep-index

#Stash everything that remains (only the staged files should remain)  This is the stash we want to keep, so give it a name.
git stash save "$1"

#Apply the original stash to get us back to where we started.
git stash apply stash@{1}

#Create a temporary patch to reverse the originally staged changes and apply it
git stash show -p | git apply -R

#Delete the temporary stash
git stash drop stash@{1}

git stash --keep-index is a good solution... except it did not work correctly on paths that have been removed, which has been fixed in Git 2.23 (Q3 2019)

See commit b932f6a (16 Jul 2019) by Thomas Gummerer (tgummerer).
^{(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit f8aee85, 25 Jul 2019)}

stash: fix handling removed files with --keep-index

git stash push --keep-index is supposed to keep all changes that have been added to the index, both in the index and on disk.

Currently this doesn't behave correctly when a file is removed from the index.
Instead of keeping it deleted on disk, **--keep-index currently restores the file.**

Fix that behaviour by using 'git checkout' in no-overlay mode which can faithfully restore the index and working tree.
This also simplifies the code.

Note that this will overwrite untracked files if the untracked file has the same name as a file that has been deleted in the index.

Another approach to this is to create a temporary commit with files you don't want to be stashed, then stash remaining files and gently remove last commit, keeping the files intact:

git add *files that you don't want to be stashed*
git commit -m "temp"
git stash --include-untracked
git reset --soft HEAD~1

That way you only touch files that you want to be touched.

Note, "--include-untracked" is used here to also stash new files (which is probably what you really want).

I haven't seen this solution that requires no use of git stash :

You don't even need to use git stash at all. You can work this out using a dedicated branch as covered here (branches are cheap).

Indeed, you can isolate separately un- and staged changes with a few consecutive commands that you could bundle together into a git alias :

Create and switch to an new branch where you'll commit separately staged and unstaged changes : see here

At any moment you can git cherry-pick -e one commit from the created branch to apply it where you want (-e to change its commit message).

When you don't need it anymore, you can delete this "stash branch". You may have to use the -D option to force deletion (instead of the -d normal option) because said branch is not merged and git might consider that you risk losing data if you delete it. That is true if you haven't cherry-picked commits that were on it before deletion :

git branch -D separated-stashes

You can also add an alias to your ~/.gitconfig in order to automate this behavior :

git config --global alias.bratisla '!git switch -c separated-stashes; git commit -m "staged changes"; git add -u; git commit -m "unstaged changes"; git switch -' # why this name ? : youtu.be/LpE1bJp8-4w

before "stashing"
after "stashing"

Of course, you can also achieve the same result using two consecutive stashes

As stated in other answers, you have some ways to stash only unstaged or only staged changes using git stash (-k|--keep-index) in combination with other commands.

I personally find the -k option very confusing, as it stashes everything but keeps staged changes in staged state (that explains why "--keep-index"). Whereas stashing something usually moves it to a stash entry. With -k the unstaged changes are stashed normally, but staged ones are just copied to the same stash entry.

Step 0 : you have two things in your git status : a file containing staged changes, and another one containing unstaged changes.

Step 1 : stash unstaged + staged changes but keep the staged ones in the index :

git stash -k -m "all changes"

The -m "..." part is optional, git stash -k is actually an alias for git stash push -k (that does not push anything remotely btw don't worry) which accepts a -m option to label you stash entries for clarity (like a commit message or a tag but for a stash entry). It is the newer version of the deprecated git stash save.

Step 1bis (optional) :

git stash

Stash staged changes (that are still in the index). This step is not necessary for the following, but shows that you can put only staged changes in a stash entry if you want to. If you use this line you have to git stash (pop|apply) && git add -u before continuing on step 2.

Step 2 :

git commit -m "staged changes"

Makes a commit containing only staged changes from step 0, it contains the same thing as the stash entry from step 1bis.

Step 3 :

git stash (pop|apply)

Restores the stash from step 1. Note that this stash entry contained everything, but since you already committed staged changes, this stash will only add unstaged changes from step 0.

nb: "restore" here does NOT mean "git restore", which is a different command.

Step 4 :

git add -u

Adds the popped stash's content to the index

Step 5 :

git commit -m "unstaged changes"

"Unstaged" here, as "staged" in steps 2 and 3's comments, refers to step 0. You are actually staging and committing the "staged changes" from step 0.

Done ! You now have two separated commits containing (un)staged changes from step 0. You may want to amend/rebase them for either additional changes or to rename/drop/squash them. Depending on what you did with your stash's stack (pop or apply), you might also want to git stash (drop|clear) it. You can see you stash entries with git stash (list|show)

Is it absolutely necessary to work on several bugs at once? And by "at once," I mean "having files edited for multiple bugs at the same time." Because unless you absolutely need that, I'd only work on one bug at a time in your environment. That way you can use local branches & rebase, which I find far easier than managing a complex stash/stage.

Let's say master is at commit B. Now work on bug #1.

git checkout -b bug1

Now you're on branch bug1. Make some changes, commit, wait for code review. This is local, so you're not affecting anyone else, and it should be easy enough to make a patch from git diffs.

A-B < master
   \
    C < bug1

Now you're working on bug2. Go back to master with git checkout master. Make a new branch, git checkout -b bug2. Make changes, commit, wait for code review.

    D < bug2
   /
A-B < master
   \
    C < bug1

Let's pretend that someone else commits E & F on master while you're waiting on review.

    D < bug2
   /
A-B-E-F < master
   \
    C < bug1

When your code has been approved, you can rebase it on to master with the following steps:

git checkout bug1
git rebase master
git checkout master
git merge bug1

This will result in the following:

    D < bug2
   /
A-B-E-F-C' < master, bug1

Then you can push, delete your local bug1 branch, and off you go. One bug at a time in your workspace, but with using local branches your repository can handle multiple bugs. And this avoids a complicated stage/stash dance.

Answer to ctote's question in the comments:

Well, you can go back to stashing for each bug, and only work with one bug at a time. Atleast that saves you the staging issue. But having tried this, I personally find it troublesome. Stashes are a bit messy in a git log graph. And more importantly, if you screw something up you can't revert. If you have a dirty working directory and you pop a stash, you can't "undo" that pop. It's much harder to screw up already existing commits.

So git rebase -i.

When you rebase one branch onto another, you can do it interactively (the -i flag). When you do this, you have the option to pick what you want to do with each commit. Pro Git is an awesome book which is also online in HTML format, and has a nice section on rebasing & squashing:

http://git-scm.com/book/ch6-4.html

I'll steal their example verbatim for convenience. Pretend you have the following commit history, and you want to rebase & squash bug1 onto master:

    F < bug2
   /
A-B-G-H < master
   \
    C-D-E < bug1

Here's what you will see when you type git rebase -i master bug1

pick f7f3f6d changed my name a bit
pick 310154e updated README formatting and added blame
pick a5f4a0d added cat-file
#
# Commands:
#  p, pick = use commit
#  e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending
#  s, squash = use commit, but meld into previous commit
#
# If you remove a line here THAT COMMIT WILL BE LOST.
# However, if you remove everything, the rebase will be aborted.
#

To squash all commits of a branch down into a single commit, keep the first commit as "pick" and replace all subsequent "pick" entries with "squash" or simply "s". You will get the opportunity to change the commit message, too.

pick f7f3f6d changed my name a bit
s 310154e updated README formatting and added blame
s a5f4a0d added cat-file
#
# Commands:
#  p, pick = use commit
#  e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending
#  s, squash = use commit, but meld into previous commit

So yeah, squashing is a bit of a pain, but I would still recommend it over heavy use of stashes.

With latest git you may use --patch option

git stash push --patch   # since 2.14.6

git stash save --patch   # for older git versions

And git will ask you for each change in your files to add or not into stash.
You just answer y or n

UPD
Alias for DOUBLE STASH:

git config --global alias.stash-staged '!bash -c "git stash --keep-index; git stash push -m "staged" --keep-index; git stash pop stash@{1}"'

Now you can stage your files and then run git stash-staged.
As result your staged files will be saved into stash.

If you do not want to keep staged files and want move them into stash. Then you can add another alias and run git move-staged:

git config --global alias.move-staged '!bash -c "git stash-staged;git commit -m "temp"; git stash; git reset --hard HEAD^; git stash pop"'

TL;DR Just add -- $(git diff --staged --name-only) for your git <pathspec> parameter

Here is a simple one-liner:

git stash -- $(git diff --staged --name-only)

And to add a message simply:

git stash push -m "My work in progress" -- $(git diff --staged --name-only)

Tested on v2.17.1 and v2.21.0.windows.1

Limitations:

• Please be aware that this will stash every single thing, if you have no files staged.
• Also if you have a file that is only partially staged ( i.e. only some changed lines, are staged while some other changed lines are not), then the whole file will get stashed (including unstaged lines).

To prune an accidental change, especially the deletion of multiple files, do the following:

git add <stuff to keep> && git stash --keep-index && git stash drop

in other words, stash the crap and throw it away with the stash altogether.

Tested in git version 2.17.1

TL;DR; git stash-staged

After creating an alias:

git config --global alias.stash-staged '!bash -c "git stash -- \$(git diff --staged --name-only)"'

Here git diff returns list of --staged files --name-only
And then we pass this list as pathspec to git stash commad.

From man git stash:

git stash [--] [<pathspec>...]

<pathspec>...
   The new stash entry records the modified states only for the files
   that match the pathspec. The index entries and working tree
   files are then rolled back to the state in HEAD only for these
   files, too, leaving files that do not match the pathspec intact.

Stashing just the index (staged changes) in Git is more difficult than it should be. I've found @Joe's answer to work well, and turned a minor variation of it into this alias:

stash-index = "!f() { \
  git stash push --quiet --keep-index -m \"temp for stash-index\" && \
  git stash push \"$@\" && \
  git stash pop --quiet stash@{1} && \
  git stash show -p | git apply -R; }; f"

It pushes both the staged and unstaged changes into a temporary stash, leaving the staged changes alone. It then pushes the staged changes into the stash, which is the stash we want to keep. Arguments passed to the alias, such as --message "whatever" will be added to this stash command. Finally, it pops the temporary stash to restore the original state and remove the temporary stash, and then finally "removes" the stashed changes from the working directory via a reverse patch application.

For the opposite problem of stashing just the unstaged changes (alias stash-working) see this answer.

To accomplish the same thing...

1. Stage just the files you want to work on.
2. git commit -m 'temp'
3. git add .
4. git stash
5. git reset HEAD~1

Boom. The files you don't want are stashed. The files you want are all ready for you.