How do you stash an untracked file?

Question

I have changes to a file, plus a new file, and would like to use git stash to put them away while I switch to another task. But git stash by itself stashes only the changes to the existing file; the new file remains in my working tree, cluttering up my future work. How do I stash this untracked file?

sykora_53850 · Answer

To stash your working directory including untracked files (especially those that are in the .gitignore) then you probably want to use this cmd:

git stash --include-untracked

Alternatively, you can use the shorthand -u instead of --include-untracked, or simply git stash --all which stashes all files, including untracked and ignored files. This bahaviour changed in 2018, so make sure your git is up to date.

Warning: there seems to be (or have been) situations in which contents of ignored directories could be deleted permanently. See this archived website for more information.

skiphoppy_18103 · Answer

Add the file to the index:

git add path/to/untracked-file
git stash

The entire contents of the index, plus any unstaged changes to existing files, will all make it into the stash.

user_313756 · Answer

As has been said elsewhere, the answer is to git add the file. e.g.:

git add path/to/untracked-file
git stash

However, the question is also raised in another answer: What if you don't really want to add the file? Well, as far as I can tell, you have to. And the following will NOT work:

git add -N path/to/untracked/file     # note: -N is short for --intent-to-add
git stash

this will fail, as follows:

path/to/untracked-file: not added yet
fatal: git-write-tree: error building trees
Cannot save the current index state

So, what can you do? Well, you have to truly add the file, however, you can effectively un-add it later, with git rm --cached:

git add path/to/untracked-file
git stash save "don't forget to un-add path/to/untracked-file" # stash w/reminder
# do some other work
git stash list
# shows:
# stash@{0}: On master: don't forget to un-add path/to/untracked-file
git stash pop   # or apply instead of pop, to keep the stash available
git rm --cached path/to/untracked-file

And then you can continue working, in the same state as you were in before the git add (namely with an untracked file called path/to/untracked-file; plus any other changes you might have had to tracked files).

Another possibility for a workflow on this would be something like:

git ls-files -o > files-to-untrack
git add `cat files-to-untrack` # note: files-to-untrack will be listed, itself!
git stash
# do some work
git stash pop
git rm --cached `cat files-to-untrack`
rm files-to-untrack

[Note: As mentioned in a comment from @mancocapac, you may wish to add --exclude-standard to the git ls-files command (so, git ls-files -o --exclude-standard).]

... which could also be easily scripted -- even aliases would do (presented in zsh syntax; adjust as needed) [also, I shortened the filename so it all fits on the screen without scrolling in this answer; feel free to substitute an alternate filename of your choosing]:

alias stashall='git ls-files -o > .gftu; git add `cat .gftu`; git stash'
alias unstashall='git stash pop; git rm --cached `cat .gftu`; rm .gftu'

Note that the latter might be better as a shell script or function, to allow parameters to be supplied to git stash, in case you don't want pop but apply, and/or want to be able to specify a specific stash, rather than just taking the top one. Perhaps this (instead of the second alias, above) [whitespace stripped to fit without scrolling; re-add for increased legibility]:

function unstashall(){git stash "${@:-pop}";git rm --cached `cat .gftu`;rm .gftu}

Note: In this form, you need to supply an action argument as well as the identifier if you're going to supply a stash identifier, e.g. unstashall apply stash@{1} or unstashall pop stash@{1}

Which of course you'd put in your .zshrc or equivalent to make exist long-term.

Hopefully this answer is helpful to someone, putting everything together all in one answer.

user_470749 · Answer

Updated Answer In 2020

I was surprised that no other answers on this page mentioned git stash push.

This article helped me understand:

The command git stash is shorthand for git stash push. In this mode, non-option arguments are not allowed to prevent a misspelled subcommand from making an unwanted stash entry. There are also another alias for this command git stash save which is deprecated in favour of git stash push.

By default git ignores untracked files when doing stash. If those files need to be added to stash you can use -u options which tells git to include untracked files. Ignored files can be added as well if -a option is specified. -a will include both untracked and ignored files.

I care about naming my stashes, and I want them to include untracked files, so the command I most commonly run is: git stash push -u -m "whatIWantToNameThisStash"

user_15175873 · Answer

New in version 2.35

git stash‘s new --staged mode makes it easy to stash away what you already have in the staging area, and nothing else. You can think of it like git commit (which only writes staged changes), but instead of creating a new commit, it writes a new entry to the stash. Then, when you’re ready, you can recover your changes (with git stash pop) and keep working.

git add -A
git stash --staged

user_2436063 · Answer

If you want to stash untracked files, but keep indexed files (the ones you're about to commit for example), just add -k (keep index) option to the -u

git stash -u -k

user_7516788 · Answer

You can simply do it with below command

git stash save --include-untracked

or

git stash save -u

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user_9044720 · Answer

let's suppose the new and untracked file is called: "views.json". if you want to change branch by stashing the state of your app, I generally type:

git add views.json

Then:

git stash

And it would be stashed. Then I can just change branch with

git checkout other-nice-branch

user_14449207 · Answer