Git is a popular version control system used by developers all over the world.
It helps keep track of changes made to the codebase, making it easier to collaborate with others and revert to previous versions if necessary.
However, it’s not uncommon to run into errors while using Git, one of which is the “commit your changes or stash them before you can merge” error.
In this tutorial, we’ll take a closer look at this error and show you how to resolve it.
Understanding the Error Message
Before we dive into the solution, let’s first understand what the error message is trying to convey.
The error message appears when you try to merge two branches, and the current branch has uncommitted changes.
Git won’t allow you to merge the branches because the uncommitted changes could be overwritten during the merge.
There are two ways to solve this problem: either commit the changes or stash them.
Committing the changes means saving the changes to the current branch, whereas stashing the changes means temporarily saving the changes without committing them to the branch.
Committing the Changes
The easiest solution to this problem is to commit the changes to the current branch.
To do this, use the following steps:
- Open the Git terminal or Git Bash.
- Navigate to the repository where you want to commit the changes.
- Type the following command to view the changes:
$ git status
- If the changes are ready to be committed, type the following command:
$ git commit -m "Your commit message"
- Replace “Your commit message” with a description of the changes.
- After the changes have been committed, you can now merge the branches without encountering the error message.
Stashing the Changes
If you’re not ready to commit the changes, you can stash them instead.
Stashing the changes temporarily saves them without committing them to the branch.
To stash the changes, use the following steps:
- Open the Git terminal or Git Bash.
- Navigate to the repository where you want to stash the changes.
- Type the following command to stash the changes:
$ git stash
- After stashing the changes, you can now merge the branches without encountering the error message.
- To retrieve the stashed changes, type the following command:
$ git stash apply
Conclusion
The “commit your changes or stash them before you can merge” error in Git is a common problem faced by developers.
By either committing the changes or stashing them, you can easily resolve this issue and continue working on your project without any interruptions.
Now that you know how to solve this problem, you can use Git with confidence and enjoy the benefits of version control.
