How do I resolve git saying “Commit your changes or stash them before you can merge”?

You can’t merge with local modifications. Git protects you from losing potentially important changes.

You have three options:

  • Commit the change using

    git commit -m "My message"
    
  • Stash it.

    Stashing acts as a stack, where you can push changes, and you pop them in reverse order.

    To stash, type

    git stash
    

    Do the merge, and then pull the stash:

    git stash pop
    
  • Discard the local changes

    using git reset --hard
    or git checkout -t -f remote/branch

    Or: Discard local changes for a specific file

    using git checkout filename

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