Using multiple github accounts

SSH config for multiple accounts

By default SSH looks for a config file under ~/.ssh/config.

The content of this file follows the following general structure:

HOST hostname1
  SSH_OPTION value
  SSH_OPTION value

HOST hostname2
  SSH_OPTION value

HOST *
  SSH_OPTION value

In order to use multiple github accounts on the same computer, we need to setup a dedicated HOST section for the repository that belong to our alternate account:

HOST alt-github.com
  HostName github.com
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/second-key.pub

HOST *
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/regular-key.pub

The HOST identifier can be anything you want.

Setup remote using the alt url

When cloning or adding remotes use the alt-github.com host instead of the regular github url:

git remote add my-remote git@alt-github.com:path/to/repo
# OR
git clone git@alt-github.com:path/to/repo

This will ensure that when performing remote operations (pull and push), SSH will use the correct key.