git stash save -u deletes ignored files without stashing them

Michael Brade· Dec 13, 2015, 07:51 UTC · lore

Hi,

and it does so if .gitignore has not been committed yet. This is with git version 2.6.3. To reproduce:

mkdir test cd test git init

echo "test" > test echo "something.txt" > .gitignore

git add test .gitignore git commit -a -m "init"

mkdir node_modules echo "something" > node_modules/file.txt echo "node_modules" >> .gitignore

git stash save -u

Now node_modules will be deleted even though it was ignored at the time of the "git stash save -u". Apparently .gitignore is reverted first, then the cleanup is done taking the new state of .gitignore into account where node_modules is now untracked and not ignored anymore, thus deleting it.

I think this should be considered a bug that can cause data loss, even if only in rare cases.

thanks,
  Michael

PS: I'm not subscribed.

Kevin Locke· Feb 4, 2016, 07:40 UTC · re: Michael Brade · lore

Re: git stash save -u deletes ignored files without stashing them

On Sun, 2015-12-13 at 7:51, Michael Brade wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> Now node_modules will be deleted even though it was ignored at the time
> of the "git stash save -u". Apparently .gitignore is reverted first,
> then the cleanup is done taking the new state of .gitignore into account
> where node_modules is now untracked and not ignored anymore, thus
> deleting it.

Another effect of this, although obviously less severe, is that it can create a stash which can not be applied without additional work:

git init echo test.txt > .gitignore git add .gitignore git commit -m init echo stuff > test.txt echo > .gitignore git stash -u

At this point the stash contains test.txt (untracked) and the changes to .gitignore which unignore the file, but test.txt is also left in the working directory. Attempting to apply the stash produces the following result:

$ git stash apply test.txt already exists, no checkout Could not restore untracked files from stash

So the user must remove it themselves, which can be confusing since the file is not listed in `git stash show`, which doesn't include untracked files.

Kevin

P.S.  Please CC me on replies.  Thanks!