TIP: Dealing with Multiple SSH Key Repositories

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I have different Git repositories cloned with different SSH keys. Say, one is work code and one is personal / side project.
When I finish work on one repository, and start to work on another and want to fetch the latest changes, I have to switch SSH keys.

That is sometimes annoying as I have to execute following command every time I switch from one repo to another:

ssh-add -D # delete cached key
ssh-add ~/.ssh/my-key # add key I need to use to the ssh-agent

There are some solutions for this, like Configuring SSH
But I found it not so nice solution, although maybe they are fully automated. You have to configure hosts, clone repository with different host, etc. I prefer something else.

Shell aliases for the rescue

I created shell script aliases (in ~/.zshrc file as I’m using ZSH) that will do commands listed above:

alias sshWork="ssh-add -D; ssh-add ~/.ssh/my-work-key"
alias sshPersonal="ssh-add -D; ssh-add ~/.ssh/my-personal-key"

Now, all I need to do is to execute either sshWorkor sshPersonalcommand and it will delete the previously cached key + add a new identity to the authentication agent.

Note: depending on shell you’re using you might need to adjust other shell config file ~/.bashrc or others. After adjusting config to apply changes without need to logout from terminal just run source ~/.zshrc or source ~/.bashrc and it will implement changes in current terminal window.

It’s that simple!