CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gitgithubgit-pushgit-for-windows
user3470887
user3470887

Reputation:

Multiple Github Accounts With Git In Windows

I recently ran into an issue where I could not push changes into a repository I had cloned down as another user from the first user I pushed with in git on my desktop.

Basically it went like this,

I was finally able to push my changes using the following:

GIT_SSH_COMMAND="ssh -i <path to private ssh key for second user>" git push

I am posting this both for others who have experienced this issue and also to ask a few questions,

  1. I understand this command is essentially specifying the key for the ssh connection to use when it makes it's push, but why is this key not already targeted if it was cloned using that same identity file?

  2. Are there any alternatives to this or better approaches that are not tedious work like manually changing config values or removing entries from the windows credential manager?

So the goal would be to push changes to multiple github accounts without having to do things like temporarily specify the ssh key to use.

HTTP Paths

https://github.com/schwaggs/testssh

https://github.com/jjschweigert/testrepo

SSH Paths

[email protected]:schwaggs/testssh.git

[email protected]:jjschweigert/testrepo.git

SSH Config File

$ cat ~/.ssh/config
Host jjschweigert
 HostName github.com
 User git
 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/jjschweigert_key
Host schwaggs
 HostName github.com
 User git
 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/jjschweigert_key

Cloning With Original Account

$ git clone jjschweigert:jjschweigert/testrepo.git
Cloning into 'testrepo'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 28, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (28/28), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (15/15), done.
remote: Total 28 (delta 0), reused 28 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
Receiving objects: 100% (28/28), done.

Pushing To Original Account (jjschweigert)

$ git push
Enumerating objects: 3, done.
Counting objects: 100% (3/3), done.
Delta compression using up to 12 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
Writing objects: 100% (2/2), 261 bytes | 43.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 2 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
To jjschweigert:jjschweigert/testrepo.git
   c082e38..31b7830  master -> master

Cloning From Second Account (schwaggs)

$ git clone schwaggs:schwaggs/testssh.git
Cloning into 'testssh'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 21, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (21/21), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (11/11), done.
remote: Total 21 (delta 0), reused 18 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
Receiving objects: 100% (21/21), done.

Pushing To Secondary Account

$ git push
ERROR: Permission to schwaggs/testssh.git denied to jjschweigert.
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

SSH -T Outputs

$ ssh -T jjschweigert
Hi jjschweigert! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.


$ ssh -T schwaggs
Hi jjschweigert! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

Upvotes: 7

Views: 14414

Answers (3)

Edmore Musvibe
Edmore Musvibe

Reputation: 9

What you need to do is to create a new ssh key for your second Github account because by default git is using the key from your first Github account and when you try to push from the second account you will get remote: Permission to privateuser/privaterepo.git denied to workuser. workeruser in this case is your first Github account's username. So you cant push to your second Github account using the first Github account's username. Follow this link for help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnSRBRiQIU8

Upvotes: 0

user3470887
user3470887

Reputation:

Per the conversation with VonC you can clearly see in the ssh config file the identity file for the second user was incorrect as it pointed to the first users file. The second entry was copied from the first and this value was not changed.

After modifying the value to point to the correct key i.e. ~/.ssh/schwaggs_key I could clone and push without issue. As a side note I have to set the user's email and name properties in git for each repository pulled from each user i.e once inside the repo,

git config user.email "github account email"

git config user.name "github account username"

Upvotes: 4

VonC
VonC

Reputation: 1323135

Clearing the git entries in the windows credential manager did not resolve this issue.

If you are using ssh URL ([email protected]:<user>/<repo>), the credential manager is not involved: it provides credentials for https:// URLS only.

Use git for the first time which asks for github credentials when pushing to a repository.

That would be the case only if the remote origin URL is an https one.

So the goal would be to push changes to multiple github accounts without having to do things like temporarily specify the ssh key to use.

That is done through an ssh config file: see as practical examples:

From the edit

Host user1
 HostName github.com
 User git
 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/iser1_key  <<====
Host user2
 HostName github.com
 User git
 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/user1_key  <<==== same key!? Meaning same user!

you cannot expect push as user2, if the SSH config for user2 entry refers to user1 private key.

Upvotes: 5

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