Tell git which private key to use

Question

ssh has the -i option to tell it which private key file to use when authenticating:

-i identity_file
     Selects a file from which the identity (private key) for RSA or DSA
     authentication is read.  The default is ~/.ssh/identity for protocol ver-
     sion 1, and ~/.ssh/id_rsa and ~/.ssh/id_dsa for protocol version 2.  Iden-
     tity files may also be specified on a per-host basis in the configuration
     file.  It is possible to have multiple -i options (and multiple identities
     specified in configuration files).

Is there a similar way to tell git which private key file to use when on a system with multiple private keys in the .ssh directory?

Laurent Pireyn · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-06 22:11:01Z

up vote 70 down vote accepted

In ~/.ssh/config, add:

Host gh
        Hostname github.com
        User git
        IdentityFile ~/.ssh/somekey

Now you can do git clone ssh://gh/username/repo.git.

edited May 6 '11 at 22:11

Laurent Pireyn
1366

answered Jan 12 '11 at 19:36

shellholic
1,19157

1

The file specified in IdentityFile is the private key, not the public key. The .pub extension you used in your example confused me, I think it will be more clear to use "IdentityFile ~/.ssh/gh_id_rsa" – Joaquin Cuenca Abela Apr 27 '11 at 9:17

@Joaquin Cuenca Abela: Answer edited. – Laurent Pireyn May 13 '11 at 16:19

What if you need to connect to the same host with different keys? – Quelltextfabrik Nov 30 '12 at 11:24

3

@Quelltextfabrik - you can add another section with a different Host: nerderati.com/2011/03/… – Ben Challenor Dec 4 '12 at 14:17

1

Awesome, thanks! – Quelltextfabrik Dec 4 '12 at 19:08

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams · Answer 2 · 2011-01-12 18:25:51Z

up vote 14 down vote

Write a script that calls ssh with the arguments you want, and put the filename of the script in $GIT_SSH. Or just put your configuration in ~/.ssh/config.

answered Jan 12 '11 at 18:25

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
61.7k23994

1

That's a handy trick – Bryan Agee May 30 '12 at 17:13

rabexc · Answer 3 · 2013-03-23 01:35:15Z

up vote 0 down vote

You can also use ssh-ident, instead of creating your own ssh wrapper.

You can read more at: https://github.com/ccontavalli/ssh-ident

answered Mar 23 at 1:35

rabexc
1

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