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Multiple SSH keys settings for different GitHub accounts (full guide)
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multiple_ssh_keys_settings.md

Multiple SSH keys settings for different GitHub accounts

Create public SSH keys

It's very simple, just run this command:

$ ssh-keygen

Choose the name for your SSH key like this:

$ ssh-keygen
  Generating public/private rsa key pair.
  Enter file in which to save the key (/path/to/home/dir/.ssh/id_rsa): /path/to/home/dir/.ssh/id_rsa_keyname

Skip passphrase by pushing enter button:

Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): [press enter]
Enter same passphrase again: [press enter]
Your identification has been saved in /path/to/home/dir/.ssh/id_rsa_keyname.
Your public key has been saved in /path/to/home/dir/.ssh/id_rsa_keyname.pub.

If you don't skip passphrase after all, you will have to enter it each time when you use your SSH key.

After creating the key you should add it to your GitHub account, of course.

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Add SSH key to ssh-agent

After creating SSH key add it to ssh-agent, using this command:

$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa_keyname

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Edit SSH config

If you don't have config file in you .ssh directory you should create it:

$ cd ~/.ssh
$ touch config

Then open config file by any editor you have (it could be: nano, vim or sublime):

$ nano config

Add your repo information to you SSH config, by following this pattern:

Host github.com-keyname
HostName github.com
User git
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_keyname

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Clone & config repos

Now, to clone repos using your new key you should write it in the host of your repo url, like this:

$ git clone git@github.com-keyname:username/repo.git

If you already clone the repo just change remote url:

$ git remote set-url origin git@github.com-keyname:username/repo.git

That's all. Don't forget to config your user.name and user.eamil for the repo:

$ git config --local user.name "username"
$ git config --local user.email user@email.com

If you're still confused, just look at the full example below.

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Example

This is a full bash example of how to create multiple SSH keys and how to use them for different GitHub accounts.

For example let's say that we already have two GitHub accounts like https://github.com/first-account & https://github.com/second-account. First account it's your primary account and you already use id_rsa.pub SSH key to get an access to it.

On the second account you have some project https://github.com/second-account/project and you want to get access to it by using another SSH key.

Let's start from the home directory. Use $ cd ~ to get there. Here we go:

$ cd ~
$ ls -al .ssh/

total 48
drwx------   7 username  staff   238 Feb 11 12:25 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 43 username  staff  1462 Feb 11 09:48 ..
-rw-------   1 username  staff  1675 Feb  6  2016 id_rsa
-rw-r--r--   1 username  staff   412 Feb  6  2016 id_rsa.pub
-rw-r--r--   1 username  staff  6780 Sep 14 18:04 known_hosts

$ ssh-keygen

Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa): /Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa_secondkey
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): 
Enter same passphrase again: 
Your identification has been saved in /Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa_secondkey.
Your public key has been saved in /Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa_secondkey.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
SHA256:9kSBg4TjUeOIvAQhAej+IKchY05Vzg5e1FhTLNyZ1fM username@device.local
The key's randomart image is:
+---[RSA 2048]----+
|Oo   +O+oo=..    |
|oo .+*.=+= . o   |
|. +.*o. ...   o  |
| o +.+   .    oE |
|. + +   S .      |
|==.. . . o       |
|*=o    .   .     |
|.. .             |
|                 |
+----[SHA256]-----+

$ ls -al .ssh/

total 48
drwx------   7 username  staff   238 Feb 11 12:25 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 43 username  staff  1462 Feb 11 09:48 ..
-rw-------   1 username  staff  1675 Feb  6  2016 id_rsa
-rw-r--r--   1 username  staff   412 Feb  6  2016 id_rsa.pub
-rw-------   1 username  staff  1675 Feb 11 12:25 id_rsa_secondkey
-rw-r--r--   1 username  staff   407 Feb 11 12:25 id_rsa_secondkey.pub
-rw-r--r--   1 username  staff  6780 Sep 14 18:04 known_hosts

Go to second-account on GitHub. Find Settings, then SSH and GPG keys. Press New SSH key. And add your id_rsa_secondkey.pub. Then continue:

$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa_secondkey
$ touch ~/.ssh/config
$ nano ~/.ssh/config

Host github.com-secondkey
HostName github.com
User git
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_secondkey

$ cd ~/projects/
$ git clone git@github.com-secondkey:second-account/project.git

Cloning into 'project'...
remote: Counting objects: 13230, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (143/143), done.
remote: Total 13230 (delta 72), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 13086
Receiving objects: 100% (13230/13230), 137.44 MiB | 3.46 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (8058/8058), done.
Checking connectivity... done.

$ git config --local user.name "Second account"
$ git config --local user.email second.account@email.com

That's all. Know you're free to work.

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Commands

ssh-keygen - Generate SSH keys

ssh-add - Add SSH key to ssh-agent

ssh-add -D - Remove SSH key from ssh-agent

ssh-add -l - List all added SSH keys

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Credits

This guide based on Multiple SSH keys for different github accounts

Great thanks to @vvboyko92, who help me setting up multiple SSH keys on real project.

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