Git stash: "Cannot apply to a dirty working tree, please stage your changes"

When I have to apply stashed changes to a dirty working copy, e.g. pop more than one changeset from the stash, I use the following:

$ git stash show -p | git apply -3 && git stash drop

Basically it

1. creates a patch
2. pipes that to the apply command
3. if there are any conflicts they will need to be resolved via 3-way merge
4. if apply (or merge) succeeded it drops the just applied stash item...

I wonder why there is no -f (force) option for git stash pop which should exactly behave like the one-liner above.

In the meantime you might want to add this one-liner as a git alias:

$ git config --global --replace-all alias.unstash \
   '!git stash show -p | git apply -3 && git stash drop'
$ git unstash

Thanks to @SamHasler for pointing out the -3 parameter which allows to resolve conflicts directly via 3-way merge.

I do it in this way:

git add -A
git stash apply

and then (optionaly):

git reset

You can do this without having to stash your current changes by exporting the stash you want as a patch file and manually applying it.

For example, say you want to apply stash@{0} to a dirty tree:

1. Export stash@{0} as a patch:

   git stash show -p stash@{0} > Stash0.patch

2. Manually apply the changes:

   git apply Stash0.patch

If the second step fails, you will have to edit the Stash0.patch file to fix any errors and then try git apply again.

Either clean your working directory with git reset, commit the changes, or, if you want to stash the current changes, try:

$ git stash save "description of current changes"
$ git stash pop stash@{1}

This will stash the current changes, and then pop the second stash from the stash stack.

Mathias's solution is definitely the closest to a git stash pop --force (and really, c'mon Git devs, let's get this option already!)

However, if you want to do the same thing using only git commands, you can:

1. git commit -a -m "Fixme"
2. git stash pop
3. git commit -a --amend
4. git reset HEAD~

In other words, make a commit (which we will never push) of your current changes. Now that your workspace is clean, pop your stash. Now, commit the stash changes as an amendment to your previous commit. Having done that you now have both sets of changes combined in a single commit ("Fixme"); just reset (--soft NOT --hard so nothing is actually lost) your checkout to "one before that commit", and now you have both sets of changes, completely uncommitted.

**EDIT**

I just realized it's actually even easier; you can completely skip step 3, so ...

1. git commit -a -m "Fixme"
2. git stash pop
3. git reset HEAD~

(Commit current changes, pop off the stashed changes, reset that first commit to get both sets of changes combined in an uncommitted state.)