3

I have 2 GitHub account and I can't use the same public key for both accounts. I have already generated 2 ssh key

  • ‪C:\Users\{User_Name}\.ssh\id_rsa
  • ‪C:\Users\{User_Name}\.ssh\id_rsa_another

My question is, how I can use multiple ssh keys for Windows? On Linux, I just have to add by using ssh-add command, but on Windows, this command does not exist.

What have I done to make the other ssh key work, I have to change the id_rsa to id_rsa_temp and id_rsa_another to id_rsa. I know this is stupid.

NM Naufaldo
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  • https://stackoverflow.com/a/8483960/7976758 , https://stackoverflow.com/a/29754018/7976758 , https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=%5Bgithub%5D+%5Bssh%5D+multiple+accounts – phd Nov 26 '21 at 19:14

2 Answers2

3

First, ssh-add exists on Windows, as part of Git For Windows:

C:\Users\vonc>where ssh-add
C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\ssh-add.exe

It is needed for caching the passphrase protecting a private key (which is not always needed, since you can create a private key without passphrase)

Using different account, as commented, uses a %USERPROFILE%.ssh\config file, with in it:

Host gh1
  Hostname github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
Host gh2
  Hostname github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_another

You can test them with:

ssh -Tv gh1
ssh -Tv gh2

You should see a different "Welcome" message per key.

And the URL to use for cloning your repo would be:

gh1:user1/repo1
gh2:user2/repo2

If, and only if, your private ssh keys are encrypted (protected by a passphrase), then you need a .bashrc to start the SSH agent, and register your keys in it, effectively caching said keys.

See "Auto-launching ssh-agent on Git for Windows"

You can run ssh-agent automatically when you open bash or Git shell.
Copy the following lines and paste them into your ~/.bashrc (%USERPROFILE%/.bashrc) file in Git shell:

env=~/.ssh/agent.env

agent_load_env () { test -f "$env" && . "$env" >| /dev/null ; }

agent_start () {
    (umask 077; ssh-agent >| "$env")
    . "$env" >| /dev/null ; }

agent_load_env

# agent_run_state: 0=agent running w/ key; 1=agent w/o key; 2=agent not running
agent_run_state=$(ssh-add -l >| /dev/null 2>&1; echo $?)

if [ ! "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK" ] || [ $agent_run_state = 2 ]; then
    agent_start
    ssh-add
    ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa_another
elif [ "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK" ] && [ $agent_run_state = 1 ]; then
    ssh-add
    ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa_another
fi

unset env

You will have to enter the passphrase on the first start, then no more: said passphrase will be cached by the agent.

VonC
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0

Finally, I found the solution

I have to use Git Bash because I can't use a regular Windows terminal when running this command

$ eval $(ssh-agent -s)

And then I can add the SSH key by running this command

$ ssh-add C:/Users/{User_Name}/.ssh/id_rsa_another

We must use the forward-slash for the path

NM Naufaldo
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