Manage Multiple Git Accounts on a Computer

I recently started working for a company that uses GitHub Enterprise for their Git solution. I set my work laptop and it’s terminal to use that GitHub account and git credentials to manage git on my computer. I also wanted to work on my personal projects which I have maintained on my GitHub account. The process to maintain multiple Git accounts on a single machine was straightforward but I wasn’t aware of the how-tos.

I looked up upon it a little and got it to work. If you’re looking for the same, here’s how:

(The commands and directories are according to a Mac computer. Things might change on a Linux or a Windows, but the job to be done remains the same, please look uiip for the right commands in that case.)

1. Generate separate SSH Keys for both (or more?) accounts

head to your .ssh directory and generate sets of SSH keys for both the accounts. This can be ignored for the accounts which already have a pair generated. This was true for my case as I had already set up my work account. To generate a pair of ssg keys, run ssh-keygen -t rsa Follow the instructions that ask for a file location, name, etc. For the name, I prefer setting something like id_rsa_work and id_rsa_personal as it is easier to identify (in case I need to someday).

2. Manage ssh config file

There should be a file named config in the .ssh folder. If not, we need to create one by running touch config. Edit the config and add the following lines into it:

#work account
Host github<-identifier>.com
   HostName <enterprice github host>
   User git
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_work
   IdentitiesOnly yes

#personal account
Host github<-identifier>.com
   HostName github.com
   User git
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_personal
   IdentitiesOnly yes

Example config:

#pradipta-sarma account
Host github.com
   HostName xyz.github.com
   User git
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_work
   IdentitiesOnly yes

#pradipta account
Host github-personal.com
   HostName github.com
   User git
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_personal
   IdentitiesOnly yes

And save the file.

3. Register the SSH keys on the respective GitHub accounts

This step is to let GitHub identify our machine and authorize it, to avoid typing in the id and password everytime. Follow the steps here to add the keys to the respective accounts.

To avoid using the work account on a clone for a personal repo, you can change a clone from: git clone git@github.com:user/repo.git to git clone git@github-personal.com:user/repo.git

With this, you’re good to go. Let me know if there’s an issue or if I have missed something.