git stash --keep-index doesn't have the expected behaviour

git stash --keep-index doesn't have the expected behaviour

[Daryl Van Den Brink]

If you search the internet for "git stash only unstaged changes" you
can find much misleading information about what "git stash
--keep-index" does. However, it is my opinion that the --keep-index
option is broken, in that it doesn't do what 90% of people want it to
do - that is, stash only the unstaged changes and not include the
staged changes in the stash. You can find many hacks to work around
this limitation, none of which are very satisfactory.

It was pointed out by some commenters on Stack Overflow that the
examples given in the documentation at
https://git-scm.com/docs/git-stash imply that the intended behaviour
of "git stash --keep-index" is to stash only the unstaged changes.
Based on that, they reason that it's actually a bug. I'm not sure
that's true, but I find the existing behaviour of "--keep-index"
puzzling because I can't think of when I would use it (whereas
stashing only unstaged changes is a feature I would frequently use).

Is it possible that --keep-index could be fixed/improved/modified to
stash only the unstaged changes, or alternatively a new option
introduced which does this?

-- 
Daryl van den Brink
Software Engineer
Maptek | 31 Flemington Street, Glenside, SA 5065, Australia
Tel: +61-8 8338 9222 | Dir: +61-8 8338 9222 | Fax: +61-8 8338 9229
daryl.vandenbrink@maptek.com.au | www.maptek.com