What is Stashing in Git?

It’s not strictly required to stash local changes before doing a git pull, but it can be a good practice depending on the situation. Let me explain:

When to stash changes before pulling:

1. Avoiding Merge Conflicts: If you have uncommitted changes and you’re about to pull new changes from the remote repository, Git might not be able to automatically merge them, especially if the changes conflict. Stashing your changes temporarily (with git stash) allows you to pull in the latest changes cleanly, and then you can reapply your changes after that.

2. Working on Something Incomplete: If you’re in the middle of working on something, but you need to pull the latest changes (for example, if others have pushed updates you need), stashing your work keeps your changes safe without needing to commit them prematurely. You can then retrieve your stashed changes once the pull is complete.

3. Avoiding Dirty Working Directory: If your working directory has changes and you don’t want those changes mixed with the incoming changes, stashing is a simple way to temporarily “clean up” your workspace.

When you don’t need to stash:

1. Committed Changes: If your changes are already committed (i.e., you’ve made a commit), git pull will simply merge your local commits with the incoming ones from the remote. No stashing is necessary because your changes are already part of your commit history.

2. No Conflicts Expected: If you’re confident there won’t be conflicts or if you’re just pulling down simple changes that won’t affect your working files, then stashing might be unnecessary.

General Workflow:

• If you have uncommitted changes:

  1. You can stash the changes (git stash).
  2. Do the git pull.
  3. Reapply the stashed changes (git stash pop).

• If you have committed changes: Just pull the changes directly (git pull), and Git will try to merge your local commits with the ones from the remote.

In summary, stashing is a useful tool when you have uncommitted work and need to ensure a clean pull. If you don’t have uncommitted changes, then there’s no need to stash before pulling.