Managing Multiple Git Identities Per Single User Account

If you need to work make changes to code under different identities, there are a few different ways you can approach this. The first solution I saw on many webpages was way too clunky for my taste. It involved a modification to your /.ssh/config file for each repository. I feel like this is a setting that’s associated with the specific cloned repository, so why not use the settings associated with that.

It turns out this is the easiest solution.

If you’re not familiar, when first configuring git, you’re prompted to configure you name and email. In the --global scope like so:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

Well this can also be done without the --global option on a per repository basis.

So cd into the repository you wish to configure.

You can run the following command to see the current configuration:

#local
git config list

#global
git config list --global

now you can set any configuration option you like on a per repository basis. I feel like the best solution to a specific problem is one that, upon learning it, you gain utility beyond the specific thing you were trying to do. This is one of those cases.

So what settings must be overridden to associate a cloned repository with a specific identity?

In order to do this you’ll need to set the user.name, user.email and to associate with a specific ssh key, you’ll use the core.sshCommand setting.

So run the following and you’ll be good to go:

git config user.name "Your Name"
git config user.email "<email address>"
git config core.sshCommand "ssh -i ~/.ssh/<your ssh key>"

And that’s it. Very simple.