Re: [PATCH] checkout: add --autostash option for branch switching

From: Harald Nordgren <haraldnordgren@gmail.com>
Date: Apr 15, 2026, 08:19 UTC
Message-ID: <20260415081900.86956-1-haraldnordgren@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20260414201327.51745-1-haraldnordgren@gmail.com>

Show 13 quoted lines

> > > +                     strbuf_addf(&autostash_msg,
> > > +                                 "autostash while switching to '%s'",
> > > +                                 new_branch_info->name);
> > > +                     create_autostash_ref_with_msg_silent(the_repository,
> > > +                                                "CHECKOUT_AUTOSTASH_HEAD",
> > 
> > It's a shame we have to create a ref here. MERGE_AUTOSTASH exists so
> > that "git merge --continue" can apply the stash once the user has
> > resolved any merge conflicts. We don't have that problem here because
> > there is no user interaction and we could just hold onto the stash oid
> > in a variable.
> 
> I don't know how to actually do that. Maybe better to do later?

A gave this a try, but it becomes a very big change. Or maybe I'm missing some key knowledge here.

Show 12 quoted lines

> > > +                                                autostash_msg.buf);
> > > +                     created_autostash = 1;
> > > +                     ret = merge_working_tree(opts, &old_branch_info, new_branch_info, &writeout_error);
> > > +             }
> > >               if (ret) {
> > 
> > I'm confused by this - if we stash then don't we expect the call to
> > unpack_trees() in merge_working_tree() to succeed and therefore return
> > 0? If opts->merge is false then we should not be trying to apply the
> > stash when merge_working_tree() fails.
> 
> Same here, I'm not sure how to get this to work. Maybe better to do later?

I think I succeeded with this one.

Harald