How to git pull while ignoring the local changes?

Question

As I am trying to pull some changes from origin/master, I am getting this error :

error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by merge

because I made local changes. I don't want to commit these changes, so I suppose I should use git stash on my branch, then git pull origin master

My question is :

1. Will the pull simply ignore the changes and merge correctly
2. Can I still use my local changes after the pull + the ones merged without any additional step ?

Thank you !

PS : yes, I googled, I just want to make sure I understood correctly.

Answer 1

Here is how your repo evolves when all is applied :

1. Before you pull, with your local modifications :

    --*--*--*--*--*--*--A--B (<- some changes you did not commit yet)
          \             ^
           \            master: your latest local commit on master
            \
             *--*--C origin/master: the latest commit on the remote repo
   

2. after git stash :

                          B <- stash: git stored local changes in its stash
                         /         
    --*--*--*--*--*--*--A <- master: the files on your disk have been restored
          \                          to their state in "master"
           \            
            \
             *--*--C origin/master: the latest commit on the remote repo
   

3. after git pull :

                          B <- stash
                         /         
    --*--*--*--*--*--*--A--D <- master: merged remote branch in local branch
          \               /
           \             /   
            \           /
             *--*--C---/
                   ^ origin/master
   

git applies the action it usually does when pulling: merge the remote changes in your local branch.

4. after git stash apply :

                          B <- stash
                         /         
    --*--*--*--*--*--*--A--D--B' <- modifications stored in B (not committed yet)
          \               /
           \             /   
            \           /
             *--*--C----
                   ^ origin/master
   

git re-applies the modifications stored in the stash on top of the new leading commit

---

The caveats are :

• step 3. (git pull) may trigger some conflicts, which you will need to solve before actually reaching the state D in the diagram
• step 4. (git stash apply) may also trigger some conflicts, if your local changes (the ones stashed in B) actually interfere with some modification from origin/master.
  You will need to solve these before reaching B' in the diagram.