On macOS, you can set up multiple git accounts on the same local machine in the following steps:
- Generate SSH public/private key pairs for each of your git accounts using
ssh-keygen
command; - Copy the generated SSH public key and add it to your git account settings;
- Edit (or create)
~/.ssh/config
file to add git host entries for each of your git accounts using a text editor (such asnano
orvim
); - Optionally, test the keys by running the "
ssh -T git@host-name
" command (where the host name is the one you specify for theHost
keyword in the~/.ssh/config
file).
For example, let's suppose you want to use two of your GitHub accounts on the same macOS system, you can do so in the following way:
Generating SSH Keys
You can generate SSH for two separate GitHub accounts in the following way:
# 1: generate ssh keys ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]" -f "github-personal" ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]" -f "github-work"
In these commands, the following options are used:
-t
: used to specify the type of key to create;-C
: used to add a comment (which is appended at the end of the public key);-f
: used to specify the file name for the generated keys.
When you run both these commands, it will generate two SSH public/private key pairs in the ~/.ssh/
folder having the name "github-personal
" and "github-work
" (as specified by the -f
option).
Copying Public SSH Key and Adding to Git
After generating the SSH keys, you need to copy the public keys one by one and add each one to their respective GitHub account, for example, like so:
# 2: copy public ssh key and add to github pbcopy < ~/.ssh/github-personal.pub # ... paste the copied key to "personal" account ... pbcopy < ~/.ssh/github-work.pub # ... paste the copied key to "work" account ...
Setting Up SSH Profiles
After copying the public keys over to the relevant git accounts, you need to set up two SSH profiles (one for each of the two git accounts) by modifying (or creating) ~/.ssh/config
file, for example, like so:
# 3.1: edit ~/.ssh/config file open -t ~/.ssh/config
If the file does not already exist, then you can create it first using the touch config
command.
This command will open the SSH config file in your default text editor. Once it's open, you can configure the git host entries for each of your account, for example, like so:
# 3.2: add git host entries for each of your git accounts Host personal.github.com HostName github.com AddKeysToAgent yes UseKeychain yes IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github-personal IdentitiesOnly yes Host work.github.com HostName github.com AddKeysToAgent yes UseKeychain yes IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github-work IdentitiesOnly yes
The configuration in the example above will set up two distinct git profiles, where the specified options do the following:
Host
: This specifies the nickname of the host you are connecting to.HostName
: This specifies the actual hostname you are connecting to.AddKeysToAgent
: This specifies whether to automatically add the SSH key to the "ssh-agent" when you run thessh
command. Setting this to "yes
" adds the SSH key for the related host to the ssh-agent when you first connect to the host.UseKeychain
: This specifies whether to use the macOS keychain to store the SSH key passphrase. Setting this to "yes
" stores the passphrase in the keychain, so you don't have to enter it every time you use the key.IdentityFile
: This specifies the path to the private SSH key file that should be used for authentication.IdentitiesOnly
: This specifies whether SSH should only use the identities specified byIdentityFile
, instead of trying all available identities. Setting this to "yes
" will make SSH only use the specified key for authentication, rather than trying all the keys in your~/.ssh
directory.
Please note that if you have any pre-existing repositories, you may have to set the git remote URL to match the Host
nickname(s) you specified. Otherwise, you might get a "Permission to remote/repo.git denied to <username>
" error.
Testing the Keys
You can test if the keys you added work, for example, by using the Host
name you specified with the following command:
ssh -T [email protected] # Hi <name>! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access. ssh -T [email protected] # Hi <name>! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.
This post was published by Daniyal Hamid. Daniyal currently works as the Head of Engineering in Germany and has 20+ years of experience in software engineering, design and marketing. Please show your love and support by sharing this post.