Manage multiple github accounts in the same computer

Sometimes we may have two or more github accounts in order to mamnagement different contents, and we need to deal with those accounts in the same computer.

1. Delete the global config

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git config --global --unset 'user.name'
git config --global --unset 'user.email'

2. Generate different SSH key for each account

For example, I got two different accounts named ’example1’ and ’example2’. So I need to generate SSH key for those accounts respectively. Note, they must be given different names to avoid cover each other.

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ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "example1@example.com"

this will generate two files in ~/.ssh directory which are id_rsa and id_rsa.pub.

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ssh-keygen -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa_2 -C "example2@example.com"

this will generate two files in ~/.ssh directory which are id_rsa_2 and id_rsa_2.pub.

3. Add the SSH key in github account, this can refer to another blog which can be found in my blogs

4. Modify the config file

use terminal to open the config file

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open ~/.ssh/config

if this file not exist, create it before modify it. if this file exist, then modify it as below(mainly Host and IdentityFile):

# example1
Host github_example1
HostName ssh.github.com
User git
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

# example2
Host github_example2
HostName ssh.github.com
User git
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_2

use the command below to confirm the modify is successful:

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ssh -T git@github_example1
ssh -T git@github_example2

5. Set the local directory config

Get into the local directory using gitbash tool.

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git config user.name "github_example1"
git config user.email "example1@example.com"

6. Link the local directory with github directory

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git remote add origin git@github_example1:XXXX/example.git

use git remote -v confirm the link status

End