Cannot apply/pop stashes with conflicts about magit HOT 5 CLOSED

Magit automatically uses --index when it concludes that it is safe:

(defun magit-stash-apply (stash)
  "Apply a stash to the working tree.
If nothing is staged, then try to reinstate the stashed index.
Doing so is not possible if there are staged changes."
  (interactive (list (magit-read-stash "Apply stash")))
  (magit-run-git "stash" "apply" stash
                 (and (not (apply #'magit-anything-staged-p nil
                                  (magit-stashed-files stash)))
                      "--index")))

It doesn't do so when any of the affected files have staged changes, because when --index is used, then git stash apply automatically unstages all changes to those files, and if there are also unstaged changes to those files, then that state (which parts of those files are staged and which are not) would be lost. (Even if there are no unstaged changes, the "file is completely staged" state would be lost, though that might be less risky.)

We could refine the check performed by this command, to check whether there are both staged and unstaged changes. Maybe we could also/instead show a warning which informs the user about this complication.

from magit.

In my case there were absolutely no changes ­— staged or unstaged. The working directory was completely clean, yet the stash didn't apply. Again, as I don't really know what "index" is, I don't know how that is possible. But I have seen that myself.

from magit.

In my case there were absolutely no changes ­— staged or unstaged. The working directory was completely clean, yet the stash didn't apply.

Then I'll have to look into it some more.

Again, as I don't really know what "index" is, I don't know how that is possible.

The "index" is the same thing as the "staging area".

from magit.

The "index" is the same thing as the "staging area".

Ah, so then the problem is reproducible when the stash contains conflicting staged changes:

#! /bin/sh

rm -rf /tmp/git-stash-index

mkdir -p /tmp/git-stash-index
cd /tmp/git-stash-index

git init -q

echo "bla bla bla" > file
git stage file
git commit -m 1

echo "foo" >> file
git stage file
git stash

echo "bar" >> file
git stage file
git commit -m 2

git status
echo ^^^

git stash apply "stash@{0}" --index

This doesn't involve Magit, but naturally Magit will also fail to apply the stash, as the underlying command it'd use fails itself.

from magit.

Further work is required to make it always possible to apply a stash, see stash-apply branch.

from magit.