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Software Engineering vocabulary · Version Control

Stash

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/stæʃ/verbCommon term

In software engineering, stash means: In Git, to save your unfinished changes in a temporary place and clean your working copy, so you can switch tasks and bring the changes back later.

In Turkish: geçici olarak kenara koymak, rafa kaldırmak, stash'lemek

How it is used

Common when an urgent bug interrupts your work: stash your changes, switch branches, fix the bug, then 'pop the stash'. The main commands are git stash, git stash pop and git stash list. In everyday English, 'stash' means to hide something for later.

Example sentences

  1. Stash your changes, pull the latest main and then pop the stash.

  2. I forgot I had stashed the half-written migration and wrote it again from scratch.

Common collocations

  • stash your changes
  • pop the stash
  • git stash
  • apply a stash
  • branchA separate line of development in a repository, where you can work on changes without affecting the main code until you are ready to merge.
  • commitA saved snapshot of changes in a repository, with a short message that explains what was changed and why. Also used as a verb: to commit your changes.
  • check outIn Git, to switch your working files to a particular branch or commit so that you can see or work on that version of the code.
  • version controlA system that records every change to a set of files over time, so a team can work on the same code, see who changed what and go back to earlier versions.

More terms: Version Control

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