How to manage multiple GitHub accounts

manage_multiple_github_accounts.md

Managing Multiple GitHub Accounts on MacOS/Linux

If you have multiple GitHub accounts and want to manage them from a single MacOS machine, follow these steps:

1. SSH Configuration:

• MacOS/Linux has an SSH configuration file located in the .ssh directory.
• Navigate to it by running cd ~/.ssh in your terminal.

2. Generating SSH Keys:

• If you have, for instance, 2 GitHub accounts (one for work and one personal), you need to create SSH key pairs for each.
• Run:

  ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"

• You'll be prompted to enter a filename to save the key. Ensure it's unique, e.g., user-1, user-2.

3. Register SSH Keys on GitHub:

• Register the generated SSH keys on the respective GitHub accounts.
• Follow these steps to do so.

4. Modify the SSH Config File:

• Go back to the SSH config file in ~/.ssh and modify it as:

  # user1 account
  Host github.com-user1
     HostName github.com
     User git
     IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github-user1
     IdentitiesOnly yes
  
  # user2 account
  Host github.com-user2
     HostName github.com
     User git
     IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github-user2
     IdentitiesOnly yes

5. Clone Your Repository:

• Run:

  git clone git@github.com-user1:user1/your-repo-name.git your-repo-name_user1

6. Configure Git Identity:

• Open local git config using git config --local -e and add:

  [user]
      name = user1
      email = user1@gmail.com

7. Ensure Remote URL is in the Right Format:

• Example:

  git@github.com-user1:user1/your-repo-name.git your-repo-name_user1

• Set the remote URL using:

  git remote set-url origin git@github.com-user1:user1/your-repo-name.git your-repo-name_user1

Sample .git/config File:

Your local repository's .git/config file would look like:

[core]
    repositoryformatversion = 0
    filemode = true
    bare = false
    logallrefupdates = true
    ignorecase = true
    precomposeunicode = true

[remote "origin"]
    url = git@github.com-user1:user1/your-repo-name.git
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*

[branch "master"]
    remote = origin
    merge = refs/heads/master

[user]
    name = user1
    email = user1@gmail.com