You might want/need to check out repos locally as several different Github users. For example, my Github account is kevinburke, but I push code at work as kevinburkeshyp. If I could only commit/push as one of those users on each machine, or I had to manually specify the SSH key to use, it would be a big hassle!

Generate some SSH keys

First generate SSH keys for each account, and then upload the public keys to the right Github accounts.

ssh-keygen -o -a 100 -t ed25519 -f "$HOME/.ssh/kevinburke_rsa"
ssh-keygen -o -a 100 -t ed25519 -f "$HOME/.ssh/kevinburkeshyp_rsa"

Set up SSH host aliasing

You're going to use your standard SSH config for the host you use more often, and an alias for the one you use less often. Here's my SSH configuration for the host I use more often - on my work laptop, it's my work account.

Host github.com
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/kevinburkeshyp_rsa
    HostName github.com
    User kevinburkeshyp

Now, set up an alias for your second account.

Host github.com-kevinburke
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/kevinburke_rsa
    HostName github.com
    User kevinburke

The Host is set to github.com-kevinburke - this is what you write into your SSH config locally. The HostName is what's used for DNS resolution, which is how this still works. Note you'll want to switch the IdentityFile and the User with the key and usernames you set when you generated the keys.

Now if you want to clone something into the second account, use the special host alias:

git clone git@github.com-kevinburke:kevinburke/hamms.git

That's it! It should just work.

Which Commit Name/Email Address?

Most people configure their commit email address using the following command:

$ git config --global user.email test@example.com

This sets your email address in $HOME/.gitconfig and applies that value to every repository/commit on your system. Obviously this is a problem if you have two different email addresses! I want to use burke@shyp.com with my Shyp account and kev@inburke.com with my personal account.

I fix this by putting an empty email in the global $HOME/.gitconfig:

[user]
    name = Kevin Burke
    email = ""

When I try a commit in a new repository, Git shows the following message:

*** Please tell me who you are.

Run

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

to set your account's default identity.
Omit --global to set the identity only in this repository.

fatal: unable to auto-detect email address (got 'kevin@rhino.(none)')

Which is good! It prevents me from committing until I've configured my email address. I then have helpers set up to easily configure this.

alias setinburkeemail="git config user.email 'kev@inburke.com'"

That's it! What tips do you use for managing two different Github accounts?

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