Scenario

Uncommitted changes on feature-ui prevent you from switching branches to fix a critical bug on main.

Task

Stash local changes to clean the working directory with message WIP: UI improvements. Switch to a new branch hotfix-auth to implement the fix, then merge it into main. Finally, rebase feature-ui against the updated main and restore your stashed changes.

Changes in hotfix-auth branch are below:

echo  "Fixing critical bug" >> src/auth.js

git commit -m "Fix critical authentication bug"

Example

Bash

# Before (Switch blocked)
error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by checkout:
        src/ui.js
Please commit your changes or stash them before you switch branches.

# After (Updated and Restored)
$ git log --oneline -1 main
a1b2c3d Fix critical authentication bug
$ git status
On branch feature-ui
Changes not staged for commit:
  modified:   src/ui.js

Step 1: Stash changes
Save your current uncommitted work to the stash stack to clean the directory.

cd /home/interview/repo
git stash push -m "WIP: UI improvements"

Step 2: Implement the hotfix
Switch to main, create a temporary branch for the fix, and commit the changes.

git checkout main
git checkout -b hotfix-auth
echo "Fixing critical bug" >> src/auth.js
git add src/auth.js
git commit -m "Fix critical authentication bug"

Step 3: Merge into Main
Switch back to main, merge the fix, and delete the temporary branch.

git checkout main
git merge hotfix-auth
git branch -d hotfix-auth

Step 4: Update the feature branch
Switch back to your feature branch and rebase it against main to pull in the new fix.

git checkout feature-ui
git rebase main

Step 5: Restore work
Reapply your stashed changes on top of the updated branch.

git stash pop