Apply stash vs Pop stash in GitKraken - what’s the difference?

If you’ve been working with Git for a while, chances are you’ve used stash at some point.

Maybe you needed to:

• Quickly switch branches

• Pull the latest changes

• Start working on something else

Or just get your messy work-in-progress out of the way.

Stashing lets you temporarily save your changes without committing them. But once you’re ready to bring those changes back, GitKraken gives you two options: ‘Apply stash’ and ‘Pop stash’.

So… what’s the difference? Let us sort it out.

Step 1

Make some changes in your repository, any kind. You now have modified files in your working directory that are not yet committed.

Step 2

Click the Stash changes button in GitKraken. Your changes are now safely stored in the stash list and your working directory is clean again.

Step 3

Right-click your stash and you’ll see two different options:

• Apply stash
• Pop stash
• (And Delete stash, but that’s not applicable for our purposes)

Both of these will restore your previously stashed changes back into your working directory.

But here’s the key difference:

Apply stash

When you choose Apply stash, GitKraken will:

• Restore the stashed changes
• Keep the stash saved in the stash list

This means you can apply the same stash again later if needed. This is useful when you:

• Want to reuse the same changes on multiple branches
• Are unsure if you’ll need the stash again
• Want a backup just in case something goes wrong

Think of this as a copy & paste.

Pop stash

When you choose Pop stash, GitKraken will:

• Restore the stashed changes
• Remove the stash from the stash list

So once it’s applied it’s gone.

This is useful when you:

• Are done with the stash
• Don’t need the changes again

Think of this as a cut & paste.

And now you know the differences between apply stash and pop stash!

GitKraken Desktop is free and available for Windows, MacOS and Linux! Click here to download GitKraken Desktop.