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Setup a Github and Gitlab accounts in one machine with SSH

In order to have access to your resources in your accounts, we have to provide a way of authentication and authorization. Using SSH keys we can securely authenticate to Github and Gitlab without entering our username and password each time we pull/push code.

Both platforms provide a guide to generate the SSH keys, add them to your account and verify the connection.

Reference: Github Docs - SSH and Gitlab Docs - SSH

In a nutshell we need to:

  • Generate the keys in our machine for each account.
  • Add the public keys to our respective accounts.
  • Create and configure the SSH config file (for multiple keys).
  • Verify connection to our accounts.

Step 1: Generate a new SSH with ssh-keygen​

Open your terminal of your preference.

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "user@example.com" -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_github

If you are using powershell it might not find the /.ssh folder, in that case use this command.

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "user@example.com" -f "$env:USERPROFILE\.ssh\id_ed25519_github"
  • The -t flag is used to specify the type of key to create, in this case ed25519, which is a popular type of public-key cryptography.
  • The -C flag is used to provide additional information about the key, such as its purpose or user who generated it.
  • The -f flag stands for filename.
  • Do it for each account.

Go to the .ssh, in windows it should be at C:\Users\<user>\.ssh.

id_ed25519_github
id_ed25519_github.pub
id_ed25519_gitlab
id_ed25519_gitlab.pub

The .pub files are your public key that must be added to your Github and Gitlab account respectively.

Add your SSH key to the ssh-agent​

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_github

For powershell.

ssh-add c:/Users/<user>/.ssh/id_ed25519_github

If you don’t want to type your passphrase every time Git uses the SSH key, you can add the key to the list of keys managed by the SSH agent.

Step 2: Add the public key to your Github and Gitlab accounts​

Add it to Github:

Add it to Gitlab:

Step 3: Create and configure the SSH config file (for multiple keys)​

In the path ~/.ssh create a new named config. This will tell SSH client which key to use for which host.

cd ~/.ssh
touch config
# *you can edit this file with notepad*

Add the following content to it.

# Github account
Host github.com
	HostName github.com
	User git
	IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_github

# Gitlab account
Host gitlab.com
	HostName gitlab.com
	User git
	IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_gitlab

Step 4: Verify connection to our accounts​

For Github:

ssh -T git@github.com

For Gitlab:

ssh -T git@gitlab.com

You should see a successfull message that your SSH key was authenticated with your accounts.

Finally, you can clone a repository from Github or Gitlab and start pull and making commits.