Separate GitHub Accounts for Work and Personal Projects: A Step-by-Step Guide
Emmanuel Nkrumah-Sarpong
Posted on June 5, 2024
Intro
We will configure Git to use your work GitHub account and work SSH key for all repositories in your work directory, while using your personal account and SSH key for repositories in other directories.
With this guide you won't have to use weird Github urls or edit your ssh config.
Requirements
Make sure you have generated ssh keys for your work account and your personal account.
Let's call them id_rsa_work
and id_rsa_personal
respectively.
These instructions are for Mac and Linux. Windows users will have to adapt it.
Steps
1 Create a config file in your home directory called .gitconfig-work
and put this in it.
[user]
name = Your Name
email = workemail@company.com
[core]
sshCommand = "ssh -o IdentitiesOnly=yes -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_work -F /dev/null"
- change
Your Name
to your name - change
workemail@company.com
to your work email - change
~/.ssh/id_rsa_work
to the location of the ssh private key used for your work github account.
2 Open your git config at ~/.gitconfig
and put this in it
[user]
name = Your Name
email = personalemail@gmail.com
[core]
sshCommand = "ssh -o IdentitiesOnly=yes -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_personal -F /dev/null"
[includeIf "gitdir:~/work/"]
path = .gitconfig-work
- change
Your Name
to your name - change
personalemail@gmail.com
to your personal email - change
~/.ssh/id_rsa_personal
to the location of the ssh private key used for your personal github account. - make sure that
.gitconfig-work
is the name of the file you created in the previous step.
Conclusion
We have set up Git to use your personal GitHub account and personal SSH key as the default for all repositories on your computer, except for those in your work directory, which should use your work account and work SSH key.
Posted on June 5, 2024
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