How to access multiple github accounts with different SSH Keys settings

Create different public keys

create different ssh keys according the article Mac Set-Up Git

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]"
$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]"

Please refer to github ssh issues for common problems.

For example, 2 keys were created at:

~/.ssh/id_rsa_user1
~/.ssh/id_rsa_user2

Before adding users, you can check existing keys:

$ ssh-add -l

or delete all cached keys:

$ ssh-add -D

Then, add these two keys as following:

$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa_user1
$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa_user2

Finally, you can check your saved keys:

$ ssh-add -l

Modify the ssh config

$ cd ~/.ssh/
$ touch config
$ editor -a config   # use your favorite editor - vim, nano etc...

Then add:

#user1 account
Host github.com-user1
	HostName github.com
	User [email protected]
	IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_user1

#user2 account
Host github.com-user2
	HostName github.com
	User [email protected]
	IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_user2

Clone you repo if you haven't already

git clone [email protected]:user1/your_repo.git your_repo

Modify your Git config

cd your_repo and modify git config as needed, for example:

$ git config user.name "user2"
$ git config user.email "[email protected]"

Validate .git/config

editor .git/config

It should have this section:

[remote "origin"]
	url = [email protected]:user2/your-repo.git
	fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*

Make sure your url = part has the exact same syntax, note the -user2 in [email protected].

or you can have global git config $ git config --global user.name "user2" $ git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

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