Rainlily ✨

Use Multiple Git Accounts on a Single System (Linux)

Suppose you have two accounts:

  • account01
  • account02

1. Open a terminal and run:


                # GitHub (account01)
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "account01-github" -f ~/.ssh/id_github_account01
# GitHub (account02)
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "account02-github" -f ~/.ssh/id_github_account02
 
# GitLab (account01)
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "account01-gitlab" -f ~/.ssh/id_gitlab_account01
# GitLab (account02)
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "account02-gitlab" -f ~/.ssh/id_gitlab_account02

2. Start or use the SSH agent

If ssh-add -l already works in your session, you can skip this. Otherwise:


                eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

3. Create and modify ~/.ssh/config:


                touch ~/.ssh/config
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config
nano ~/.ssh/config

Add this configuration:


                # GitHub (account01)
Host github.com-account01
    HostName github.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_github_account01
    IdentitiesOnly yes
 
# GitHub (account02)
Host github.com-account02
    HostName github.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_github_account02
    IdentitiesOnly yes
 
# GitLab (account01)
Host gitlab.com-account01
    HostName gitlab.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_gitlab_account01
    IdentitiesOnly yes
 
# GitLab (account02)
Host gitlab.com-account02
    HostName gitlab.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_gitlab_account02
    IdentitiesOnly yes

4. Add keys to the SSH agent:


                ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_github_account01
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_github_account02
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_gitlab_account01
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_gitlab_account02
 
ssh-add -l

5. Copy public keys (one at a time):

Wayland:


                wl-copy < ~/.ssh/id_github_account01.pub
# repeat for each .pub file as needed

X11:


                xclip -selection clipboard < ~/.ssh/id_github_account01.pub

Or use cat ~/.ssh/id_....pub and copy manually.

6. Test the connection:


                ssh -T git@github.com-account01
ssh -T git@github.com-account02
ssh -T git@gitlab.com-account01
ssh -T git@gitlab.com-account02

7. Use SSH for account01


                # New clone
git clone git@github.com-account01:git-username/repository.git
 
# Existing repo
git remote set-url origin git@github.com-account01:git-username/repository.git