Is it possible to preview stash contents in git?

I often put work away for later, then other stuff comes along, and a few weeks later, I want to inspect the stash, and find out what changes it would make if I applied it to working tree in its current state.

I know I can do a git diff on the stash, but this shows me all the differences between the working tree and the stash, whereas I'm just interested to know what the stash apply is going to change.

How can I do this?

Solution 1:

git stash show will show you the files that changed in your most recent stash. You can add the -p option to show the diff.

git stash show -p

If the stash you are interested in is not the most recent one, then add the name of the stash to the end of the command:

git stash show -p stash@{2}

Solution 2:

To view a current list of stash:

git stash list

You'll see a list like this:

stash@{0}: WIP on ...
stash@{1}: ...
stash@{2}: ...
...

To view diff on any of those stashes:

git stash show -p stash@{n}

Solution 3:

I'm a fan of gitk's graphical UI to visualize git repos. You can view the last item stashed with:

gitk stash

You can also use view any of your stashed changes (as listed by git stash list). For example:

gitk stash@{2}

In the below screenshot, you can see the stash as a commit in the upper-left, when and where it came from in commit history, the list of files modified on the bottom right, and the line-by-line diff in the lower-left. All while the stash is still tucked away.

Solution 4:

To view all the changes in an un-popped stash:

git stash show -p stash@{0}

To view the changes of one particular file in an un-popped stash:

git diff HEAD stash@{0} -- path/to/filename.php