Multiple Github Accounts With Git In Windows

Question

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,

• Use git for the first time which asks for github credentials when pushing to a repository. These credentials are then used for all pushes regardless of how the repo was cloned (which ssh key, user, etc)
• Generate SSH keys for both github accounts and add entries to the ssh config to target these identity files. Keys are added to each github account as well.
• Clone repo using corresponding Host entry in ssh config for original account git clone :/.git
• Attempt to push changes to repo and is successful Clone repo using corresponding Host entry in ssh config for second account git clone <2nd Host>:<2nd username>/.git

• Attempt to push changes to repo and receive error that the original username does not have permission, even though this was cloned using the second user and more specifically an ssh key.

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

• Clearing the global user name and email did not resolve this issue

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.

Answer 1

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:

• "How to work on personal GitHub repo from office computer whose SSH key is already added to a work related GitHub account?"
• "How to set up authentication for two separate GitHub accounts from same ssh client?"

---

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.

Answer 2

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"