Skip to content

instructions.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
229 lines (168 loc) · 5.74 KB

instructions.md

File metadata and controls

229 lines (168 loc) · 5.74 KB

Git Multi-Account Setup on Windows

This guide explains how to cleanly set up multiple Git accounts (e.g. GitHub + Azure DevOps) on a Windows machine — folder-based, with a defined default account.

Concept

Two things need to be configured — they work independently of each other:

What Purpose Where configured
SSH Keys Authentication with the server (push/pull) ~/.ssh/config
Name + Email Commit identity (git log) ~/.gitconfig + separate profile files

~ on Windows translates to: C:\Users\<YourUsername>\

Step 1 – Generate SSH Keys

Open PowerShell and run the following commands:

# GitHub Account 1 (e.g. Work)
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "work@github" -f $HOME\.ssh\id_github_work

# GitHub Account 2 (e.g. Personal)
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "personal@github" -f $HOME\.ssh\id_github_personal

# Azure DevOps → must be RSA (Azure does not accept ed25519)
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "work@azure" -f $HOME\.ssh\id_azure

When asked for a passphrase, just press Enter to skip.

Verify the result — the following files should exist:

Get-ChildItem $HOME\.ssh\
id_github_work       id_github_work.pub
id_github_personal   id_github_personal.pub
id_azure             id_azure.pub

Step 2 – Register Public Keys on each Platform

Copy the content of each .pub file and register it on the respective platform:

# Display for copying:
Get-Content $HOME\.ssh\id_github_work.pub
Get-Content $HOME\.ssh\id_github_personal.pub
Get-Content $HOME\.ssh\id_azure.pub

GitHub (log into each account separately): → github.com/settings/keys → "New SSH key"

Azure DevOps: → dev.azure.com → Avatar top right → User Settings → SSH Public Keys → "Add"

Step 3 – Set up SSH Config

Open the file (it will be created if it doesn't exist):

notepad $HOME\.ssh\config

Content:

# GitHub Work Account
Host github-work
  HostName github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_github_work

# GitHub Personal Account
Host github-personal
  HostName github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_github_personal

# Azure DevOps
Host ssh.dev.azure.com
  HostName ssh.dev.azure.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_azure

Important: For GitHub, aliases (github-work, github-personal) are used because two accounts share the same hostname github.com. Azure DevOps only has one account here, so the real hostname is used directly.

Step 4 – Update Remote URLs (GitHub with Aliases)

Since GitHub repos are now accessed via aliases, existing repos need their remote URLs updated once:

# Instead of: git@github.com:organisation/repo.git
# Work:
git remote set-url origin git@github-work:organisation/repo.git

# Personal:
git remote set-url origin git@github-personal:yourname/repo.git

For new repos, clone using the alias from the start:

git clone git@github-work:organisation/repo.git

Azure DevOps URLs remain unchanged since the real hostname is used directly.

Step 5 – Configure Git Identities (Name + Email)

Folder Structure (Example)

Desktop\
  Work Git\         ← GitHub Work repos
  Work Azure\       ← Azure DevOps repos
  Personal Git\     ← GitHub Personal repos
  Other\            ← everything else → default account applies

Main gitconfig (~/.gitconfig)

# Default account (applies everywhere no includeIf matches)
[user]
  name = Your Name
  email = your@default-email.com

# GitHub Work → overrides default in this folder
[includeIf "gitdir/i:C:/Users/<YourUsername>/Desktop/Work Git/"]
  path = ~/.gitconfig-github-work

# Azure DevOps → overrides default in this folder
[includeIf "gitdir/i:C:/Users/<YourUsername>/Desktop/Work Azure/"]
  path = ~/.gitconfig-azure

# GitHub Personal → overrides default in this folder
[includeIf "gitdir/i:C:/Users/<YourUsername>/Desktop/Personal Git/"]
  path = ~/.gitconfig-github-personal

Create Profile Files

~/.gitconfig-github-work

[user]
  name = Your Name
  email = you@company.com

~/.gitconfig-azure

[user]
  name = Your Name
  email = you@company.com

~/.gitconfig-github-personal

[user]
  name = Your Name
  email = you@personal.com

Step 6 – Test Everything

Test SSH connections

# GitHub Work
ssh -T git@github-work
# Expected: "Hi <username>! You've successfully authenticated..."

# GitHub Personal
ssh -T git@github-personal
# Expected: "Hi <username>! You've successfully authenticated..."

# Azure DevOps
ssh -T git@ssh.dev.azure.com
# Expected: "remote: Shell access is not supported." → This is correct and means it worked!

Test Git identity

Inside a repo under the respective folder:

# Shows which email is active and which file it comes from:
git config --show-origin user.email

Summary – How it scales

New account?
  1. ssh-keygen → generate a new key
  2. Register .pub key on the platform
  3. ~/.ssh/config → add a new Host entry
  4. ~/.gitconfig → add a new includeIf block
  5. ~/.gitconfig-<name> → create a new profile file

Every account is fully isolated. The default account automatically applies to all repos that don't fall under any of the defined folders.

Quick Reference

Account SSH Host Alias Profile File Folder
Default – ~/.gitconfig directly everywhere else
GitHub Work github-work ~/.gitconfig-github-work Desktop\Work Git\
Azure DevOps ssh.dev.azure.com ~/.gitconfig-azure Desktop\Work Azure\
GitHub Personal github-personal ~/.gitconfig-github-personal Desktop\Personal Git\