Manage GitHub and Gitlab accounts on a single machine

Manage GitHub and Gitlab accounts on a single machine with SSH keys on Linux

For this example, We will use the same email address to produce two different SSH keys:

• one for Github, and
• the other is for Gitlab

The logic also extends to different emails, and multiple Github, and Gitlab accounts.

Generate new SSH keys

Check if you have any existing SSH keys with the ls -al ~/.ssh command on your machine. You can also use the existing key pair if available, but I suggest you don’t.

To create private and public SSH pairs for your personal, and work accounts, run the commands:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "personal@mail.com" -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa_github
ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "personal@mail.com" -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa_gitlab

The above commands will produce four different files namely as below:

~/.ssh/id_rsa_github
~/.ssh/id_rsa_github.pub
~/.ssh/id_rsa_gitlab
~/.ssh/id_rsa_gitlab.pub

Add SSH keys to Github and Gitlab

Github

Copy the corresponding public key of your Gitlab account

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa_github.pub

Log on to your Github account. Then go to Settings > SSH and GPG Keys > New SSH key

Paste the public key on the Key section, and edit the title.

Gitlab

Copy the corresponding public key of your Gitlab account

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa_gitlab.pub

Log on to your Gitlab account. Then go to Settings > SSH Keys

Paste the public key in the key window, and edit the title.

Register SSH Keys with the ssh-agent

Register all SSH keys on your local machine using the ssh-agent

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa_github
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa_gitlab

Editing Config File

In the last step, create a configuration file that will add the different SSH keys for all online repositories and emails we created earlier.

touch ~/.ssh/config
vim ~/.ssh/config

The config file should look like this

# Personal account
Host github.com
   HostName github.com
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_github# Personal gitlab account

# Work account
Host gitlab.com
   HostName gitlab.com
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_gitlab

After following the above steps, you should be able to clone and edit both your GitHub and GitLab repositories on your local machine.