Skip to main content

Viewing the changes in a Git stash

Posted in Development and Git

It’s a good idea to name our stashes if some time is likely to pass between stashing and picking up the work again, but sometimes we need even more information, which is where the show command comes in:

git stash show

This will tell you the following about the most recent stash:

  • which files were changed
  • the number of changes in each file
  • the total number changes in all the files

It’s possible to specify the stash too; just find the index number of the stash you’d like more details on and run:

git stash show stash@{2}

In this example, we’d be looking at the third most recent stash.

This is a nice overview and may be enough to jog your memory, but what if you need even more?

Viewing the diff

To see the actual changes, line by line, to the files in a stash, we can use the --patch flag (or -p for short):

git stash show -p

This will show the diff of the most recently stashed stash, but of course we can choose any from our list of stashes by adding the index:

git stash show -p stash@{2}

Accessibility in your inbox

I send an accessibility-centric newsletter on the last day of every month, containing:

  • A roundup of the articles I’ve posted
  • A hot pick from my archives
  • Some interesting posts from around the web

I don’t collect any data on when, where or if people open the emails I send them. Your email will only be used to send you newsletters and will never be passed on. You can unsubscribe at any time.

More posts

Here are a couple more posts for you to enjoy. If that’s not enough, have a look at the full list.

  1. Not all screen reader users are blind

    There’s a common misconception that everyone who uses screen reader software is blind; that’s mostly the case, but not always.

  2. Accessibility by degrees

    Retro-fitting accessibility is far from ideal but usually the only way digital products are able to reach all of their potential users.