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r_tanaka
r_tanaka

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How to handle multiple ssh keys for gitlab

#gitlab #ssh #bash

When you have multiple account of the gitlab.com (ex: private and company), the gitlab.com will reject your key if you want to use same key for each account.

How to handle it?
I can propose 2 ways.

1. use ~/.ssh/config

　1. Open or create ~/.ssh/config

　2. You can add an entry like below.

host gitlab_company
     HostName gitlab.com
     IdentityFile ~/.ssh/company_id_rsa
     User git
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  • The first line is as your preference.
  • HostName and User are fixed for the gitlab.com.
  • IdentityFile is your private key.

　3. Also you can add another entry for your private account or something.

host gitlab_private
     HostName gitlab.com
     IdentityFile ~/.ssh/private_id_rsa
     User git
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　4. Open .git/config in your repository.

Let's move to your local git repository.
Then open .git/config, you can see like below.

 [core]
     repositoryformatversion = 0
     filemode = true
     bare = false
     logallrefupdates = true
 [remote "origin"]
     url = git@gitlab.com:company/something.git
     fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
 [branch "main"]
     remote = origin
     merge = refs/heads/main
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Please look url under [remote "origin"].
You can change git@gitlab.com:... to git@gitlab_company:... or git@gitlab_private:... like below.

url = gitlab_company:company/something.git
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Finally, git client uses your ssh key which defined in configuration files automatically.

2. make command for switching ssh keys

When you have multiple ssh keys like below.

$ ll ~/.ssh/
total 4
-rw------- 1 m me 3243 Aug 31  2021 company_id_rsa
-rw-r--r-- 1 me me  746 Aug 31  2021 company_id_rsa.pub
-rw------- 1 me me 3243 Sep 29  2021 private_rsa
-rw-r--r-- 1 me me  746 Sep 29  2021 private_rsa.pub
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You can add below function into a bash configuration file, such as .bashrc or .bash_aliases.

function switch_ssh() {
    rm ~/.ssh/id_rsa ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
    ln -s ~/.ssh/$1_id_rsa ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    ln -s ~/.ssh/$1_id_rsa.pub ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
    ls -laF ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    ls -laF ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
}
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Then you can execute like below

switch_ssh company
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Above command makes 2 symbolic links like below.

$ ll ~/.ssh/
total 6
-rw------- 1 ryo ryo 3243 Aug 31  2021 company_id_rsa
-rw-r--r-- 1 ryo ryo  746 Aug 31  2021 company_id_rsa.pub
-rw------- 1 ryo ryo 3243 Sep 29  2021 private_rsa
-rw-r--r-- 1 ryo ryo  746 Sep 29  2021 private_rsa.pub
lrwxrwxrwx 1 ryo ryo   32 Apr 20 16:22 id_rsa -> /home/ryo/.ssh/company_id_rsa
lrwxrwxrwx 1 ryo ryo   36 Apr 20 16:22 id_rsa.pub -> /home/ryo/.ssh/company_id_rsa.pub
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This command will make or remake symbolic link named id_rsa from company_id_rsa. Of course, switch_ssh private makes id_rsa from private_id_rsa. id_rsa is default key name git client normally use.

Let's enjoy your git life!

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