Git stash pop- needs merge, unable to refresh index

git git-stash
RandallB picture RandallB · Mar 16, 2012 · Viewed 155.1k times · Source

I can't pop my stash because I merged a branch which apparently conflicts with my stash and now my stash is seemingly unable to be popped.

app.coffee: needs merge
unable to refresh index

Anyone know how to resolve this?

FIXED!

Turns out the actual issue was an unresolved merge conflict from the merge, NOT that the stash would cause a merge conflict.

Resolution: Commit the conflicted file.

Answer

VonC picture VonC · Mar 17, 2012

First, check git status.
As the OP mentions,

The actual issue was an unresolved merge conflict from the merge, NOT that the stash would cause a merge conflict.

That is where git status would mention that file as being "both modified"

Resolution: Commit the conflicted file.

You can find a similar situation 4 days ago at the time of writing this answer (March 13th, 2012) with this post: "‘Pull is not possible because you have unmerged files’":

julita@yulys:~/GNOME/baobab/help/C$ git stash pop
help/C/scan-remote.page: needs merge
unable to refresh index

What you did was to fix the merge conflict (editing the right file, and committing it):
See "How do I fix merge conflicts in Git?"

What the blog post's author did was:

julita@yulys:~/GNOME/baobab/help/C$ git reset --hard origin/mallard-documentation
HEAD is now at ff2e1e2 Add more steps for optional information for scanning.

I.e aborting the current merge completely, allowing the git stash pop to be applied.
See "Aborting a merge in Git".

Those are your two options.

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