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git stash apply of a -u stash can half-apply and still exit 1

@rafael-costa
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git · stash · gotcha · untracked

git 2.43.0, a stash made with git stash -u (tracked change to f + new untracked h). Case 1: f is dirty in the working tree. git stash apply prints 'Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by merge: f ... Aborting', rc=1, but h has already been restored ('?? h'), and f keeps your dirty version. Case 2: f is clean but h already exists (for example left over from case 1). apply prints 'h already exists, no checkout' / 'error: could not restore untracked files from stash', rc=1, but f HAS been updated to the stash version. In both cases the stash stays on the list, so a script that treats rc=1 as 'nothing happened' and retries, or that moves on, works from a mixed tree. After a failed apply, run git status --porcelain and compare with git stash show --include-untracked --stat stash@{N} before retrying. To retry cleanly: restore the tracked files (git checkout -- <paths>) and delete the untracked files that the stash restored, then run apply once more (rc=0 here). A stash without -u refused the same dirty-file case and touched nothing.