Using Two GitHub Accounts on the Command Line

Fri Apr 19 2024 2 min read

To work with different GitHub accounts on the command line by configuring multiple SSH keys and associating each key with a different GitHub account. Here’s how you can set it up:

1. Generate SSH Keys:

1. Generate SSH Key for Each Account:
   • Open your terminal and run the following command to generate an SSH key for each GitHub account:

     ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "your_email@example.com"
     

   • When prompted, provide a unique name for each key, such as id_rsa and id_rsa_work, and optionally set a passphrase.

2. Add SSH Keys to SSH Agent:

1. Start SSH Agent:

   • Start the SSH agent by running:

     eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
     

2. Add SSH Keys:

   • Add each SSH key to the SSH agent using:

     ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
     ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa_work
     

   • Enter the passphrase for each key when prompted.

3. Configure SSH Config File:

1. Create SSH Config File:

   • Create or edit the SSH config file by running:

     nano ~/.ssh/config
     

2. Configure SSH Hosts:

   • Add configurations for each GitHub account:

     # Default GitHub account
     Host github.com
         HostName github.com
         User git
         IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
     
     # Work GitHub account
     Host github.com-work
         HostName github.com
         User git
         IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_work
     

   • Replace id_rsa and id_rsa_work with the names of your SSH keys.

4. Associate SSH Keys with GitHub Accounts:

1. Add SSH Keys to GitHub Accounts:
   • Go to your GitHub account settings and navigate to SSH and GPG keys.
   • Add the content of each public key file (id_rsa.pub and id_rsa_work.pub) to the corresponding GitHub account.

5. Clone Repositories:

1. Clone Repositories:
   • When cloning repositories, use the configured hostnames:

     git clone git@github.com:your_username/repo.git
     git clone git@github.com-work:your_username/repo.git
     

   • Replace your_username and repo with your GitHub username and repository name.

6. Working with Repositories:

1. Configure Global User:

   • Optionally, configure your global user for each repository:

     git config --global user.name "Your Name"
     git config --global user.email "your_email@example.com"
     

   • This ensures that commits made in each repository are associated with the correct user.

2. Add, Commit, and Push Changes:

   • Add, commit, and push changes to each repository as usual using the configured hostnames.

By following these steps, you can work with multiple GitHub accounts on the command line simultaneously.