Using multiple Github accounts with SSH

When I started using Github, I used Github Desktop for sometime because that felt easy. Down the line, I learnt using git via CLI. And, I haven't touched the electron tool back ever. But, I was still using Github via HTTP vs SSH.

I fell in love with ssh when I first discovered it. Once setup you can use ssh to work with multiple repositories under same account. The only downside is the initial setup that might feel complicated if you are using it for the very first time. However, it saves you from the pain of password/token based authentication (...painful).

If you haven't used ssh before, these two articles would help you set up pretty quick.

1. Generating a new SSH Key
2. Adding the Generated Key to your Github Account

So far so good, this works good for a single account. What if you have to use multiple accounts? Personal and Work?

1. Use ssh-keygen to start creating your new ssh key. Note, this email should be same as the one you use with your Github account.

        ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "youremail@domain.com"
   

2. Give this ssh-key a different name, so that it does not conflict/overwrite existing keys. All existing ssh keys can be found under ~/.ssh folder. I named my own as "pavittarxnoauth".

      Enter file in which to save the key (/home/pavittarx/.ssh/id_rsa): pavittarxnoauth
   

3. In the next steps, provide a password or simply hit enter if you do not want to add any passwords while authentication.

4. Check if the key has been successfully created. If you cannot find the key in .ssh folder. Repeat steps 1-3.

      ls ~/.ssh
   

5. Start your ssh-agent if you have not already.

      eval `ssh-agent -s`
   

6. Add the key to your ssh agent.

      ssh-add ~/.ssh/pavittarxnoauth
   

7. Navigate to ~/.ssh directory.

      cd ~/.ssh
   

8. Add following entry to the config file. You can also create one if it doesn't exist. Replace, pavittarxnoauth with your key-file name. Also, replace github-noauth to anything as per your preference.

   Host github-noauth
    HostName github.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/pavittarxnoauth
   

9. Add the ~/.ssh/<yourkeyfilename.pub> to your Github account as stated here.

10. Clone your repo with ssh, or change the git remote and git config for the repository.

        git clone git@github-noauth:<your-github-username>/<your-git-repo>
    

    For existing repository, that has been cloned already.

    1. Change git remote origin

      git remote remove origin
      git remote add origin git@github-noauth:<github-username>/<git-repo>
    

    1. Change git config

      git config --local user.email "your-github-email@domain.com"
      git config --local user.name "github-username"
    

You can use same process to add multiple keys, with same or different accounts to Github. Also, the same is reproducable for other git providers such as Bitbucket/ Gitlab.