Git stash pop- needs merge, unable to refresh index

Here's how I solved the issue:

  • git status (see a mix of files from a previous stash, pull, stash pop, and continued work.)
  • git stash (see the needs merge issue)
  • git add . (add the files so my work locally resolves my own merged)
  • git stash (no error)
  • git pull (no error)
  • git stash pop (no error and continue working)

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.

Solution: in this case, simply add and commit your local file.

Actually, just git add -- your file, or (if you don't want those changes) git reset -- yourfile (to unstage it) is enough to get past the error message.

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.

Tags:

Git

Git Stash

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