Is it possible to have different Git configuration for different projects?

Git Problem Overview

.gitconfig is usually stored in the user.home directory.

I use a different identity to work on projects for Company A and something else for Company B (primarily the name / email). How can I have two different Git configurations so that my check-ins don't go with the name / email?

Git Solutions

Solution 1 - Git

There are 3 levels of git config; project, global and system.

project: Project configs are only available for the current project and stored in .git/config in the project's directory.
global: Global configs are available for all projects for the current user and stored in ~/.gitconfig.
system: System configs are available for all the users/projects and stored in /etc/gitconfig.

Create a project specific config, you have to execute this under the project's directory:

$ git config user.name "John Doe"

Create a global config:

$ git config --global user.name "John Doe"

Create a system config:

$ git config --system user.name "John Doe"

And as you may guess, project overrides global and global overrides system.

Note: Project configs are local to just one particular copy/clone of this particular repo, and need to be reapplied if the repo is recloned clean from the remote. It changes a local file that is not sent to the remote with a commit/push.

Solution 2 - Git

As of git version 2.13, git supports conditional configuration includes. In this example we clone Company A's repos in ~/company_a directory, and Company B's repos in ~/company_b.

In your .gitconfig you can put something like this.

[includeIf "gitdir:~/company_a/"]
  path = .gitconfig-company_a
[includeIf "gitdir:~/company_b/"]
  path = .gitconfig-company_b

Example contents of .gitconfig-company_a (the core section can be omitted if the global ssh key can be used)

[user]
name = John Smith
email = [email protected]

[core]
sshCommand = ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_companya

Example contents of .gitconfig-company_b

[user]
name = John Smith
email = [email protected]

[core]
sshCommand = ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_companyb

Solution 3 - Git

The .git/config file in a particular clone of a repository is local to that clone. Any settings placed there will only affect actions for that particular project.

(By default, git config modifies .git/config, not ~/.gitconfig - only with --global does it modify the latter.)

Solution 4 - Git

Thanks @crea1

A small variant:

As it is written on https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#_includes:

> If the pattern ends with /, ** will be automatically added. For example, the pattern foo/ becomes foo/**. In other words, it matches foo and everything inside, recursively.

So I use in my case,
~/.gitconfig :

[user] # as default, personal needs
    email = [email protected]
    name = bcag2
[includeIf "gitdir:~/workspace/"] # job needs, like workspace/* so all included projects
    path = .gitconfig-job

# all others section: core, alias, log…

So If the project directory is in my ~/wokspace/, default user settings is replace with
~/.gitconfig-job :

[user]
name = John Smith
email = [email protected]

Solution 5 - Git

To be explicit, you can also use --local to use current repository config file:

git config --local user.name "John Doe"

Or as @SherylHohman mentioned, use the following to open the local file in your editor:

git config --local --edit

Solution 6 - Git

I am doing this for my email in the following way:

git config --global alias.hobbyprofile 'config user.email "[email protected]"'

Then when I clone a new work project, I have only to run git hobbyprofile and it will be configured to use that email.

Solution 7 - Git

Another way is to use direnv and to separate config files per directory. For example:

.
├── companyA
│  ├── .envrc
│  └── .gitconfig
├── companyB
│  ├── .envrc
│  └── .gitconfig
└── personal
   ├── .envrc
   └── .gitconfig

Each .envrc should contain something like this:

export GIT_CONFIG_GLOBAL=$(pwd)/.gitconfig

And .gitconfig is usual gitconfig with desired values.

This is what I actually have in the custom .gitconfig files:

[user]
	email = [email protected]

[include]
    path = ~/.gitconfig

Here only user.email is overwritten, the rest configuration is taken from the default ~/.gitconfig.

Solution 8 - Git

You can also point the environment variable GIT_CONFIG to a file that git config should use. With GIT_CONFIG=~/.gitconfig-A git config key value the specified file gets manipulated.

Solution 9 - Git

You can customize a project's Git config by changing the repository specific configuration file (i.e. /path/to/repo/.git/config). BTW, git config writes to this file by default:

cd /path/to/repo
git config user.name 'John Doe'  # sets user.name locally for the repo

I prefer to create separate profiles for different projects (e.g. in ~/.gitconfig.d/) and then include them in the repository's config file:

cd /path/to/repo
git config include.path '~/.gitconfig.d/myproject.conf'

This works well if you need to use the same set of options in multiple repos that belong to a single project. You can also set up shell aliases or a custom Git command to manipulate the profiles.

Solution 10 - Git

Follow the Steps:

Find .gitconfig from the system

File Location For Windows : "C:\Users${USER_NAME}.gitconfig"

File Location For Linux : "/usr/local/git/etc/gitconfig"

Open .gitconfig file and add below lines as per your condition

 [includeIf "gitdir:D:\ORG-A-PROJECTS\"]

 [user]

     name = John Smith

     email = [email protected] [includeIf "gitdir:~/organization_b/"]

 [user]

     name = John Doe

     email = [email protected]

Solution 11 - Git

I'm in the same boat. I wrote a little bash script to manage them. https://github.com/thejeffreystone/setgit

#!/bin/bash

# setgit
#
# Script to manage multiple global gitconfigs
# 
# To save your current .gitconfig to .gitconfig-this just run:
# setgit -s this
#
# To load .gitconfig-this to .gitconfig it run:
# setgit -f this
# 
# 
# 
# Author: Jeffrey Stone <[email protected]>

usage(){
  echo "$(basename $0) [-h] [-f name]" 
  echo ""
  echo "where:"
  echo " -h  Show Help Text"
  echo " -f  Load the .gitconfig file based on option passed"
  echo ""
  exit 1  
}

if [ $# -lt 1 ]
then
  usage
  exit
fi

while getopts ':hf:' option; do
  case "$option" in
      h) usage
         exit
         ;;
      f) echo "Loading .gitconfig from .gitconfig-$OPTARG"
         cat ~/.gitconfig-$OPTARG > ~/.gitconfig
         ;;
      *) printf "illegal option: '%s'\n" "$OPTARG" >&2
         echo "$usage" >&2
         exit 1
         ;;
    esac
done

Solution 12 - Git

I had an error when trying to git stash my local changes. The error from git said "Please tell me who you are" and then told me to "Run git config --global user.email "[email protected] and git config --global user.name "Your name" to set your account's default identity." However, you must Omit --global to set the identity only in your current repository.

Solution 13 - Git

Add multiple SSH keys with Github config

After 13 August 2021, git is not supporting HTTPs authentication method, so I believe this answer needs to be updated.

Follow the steps below:

remove all SSH keys (public & private) for Git stored in directory ~/.ssh/.
create new SSH keys:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "[email protected]"
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "[email protected]"

When asked for file names, give default ~/.ssh/id_rsa for account1 and ~/.ssh/id_rsa_acc2 for account2 respectively.

Star ssh-agent and add private keys for account1 and account2:

eval `ssh-agent -s
ssh-add -k ~/.ssh/id_rsa
ssh-add -k ~/.ssh/id_rsa_acc2

confirm keys are added by command ssh-add -l

copy public keys for account1 and account2 and add it to your github account.
set account1's username and user email as global GitHub config:

git config --global user.name "acc1_username"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

create ~/.ssh/config file with following configuration:

# account1 github
Host github.com
HostName github.com
User git
AddKeysToAgent yes
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

# account2 github
Host github.com-acc2
HostName github.com
User git
AddKeysToAgent yes
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_acc2

To set GitHub account2 for a project set username & email on project level in the project root directory:

git config user.name "acc2_username"
git config user.email "[email protected]"

Now clone or add origin by using SSH link of GitHub repo:

# for account1 repo
git remote set-url origin [email protected]:acc1_username/reponame.git

# for account2 repo
git clone [email protected]:acc2_username/reponame.git

Feel free to add comments for any doubts.

Solution 14 - Git

Found out a really useful shell script wrapping over all the process of ssh key generation and typing out long commands again and again

Note: This is only for ZSh users

https://github.com/tw-yshuang/Git_SSH-Account_Switch

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	priya	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Git	teymourlouie	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Git	crea1	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Git	Amber	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Git	bcag2	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Git	mim	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Git	ivand58	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Git	German Lashevich	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Git	Stefan Näwe	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - Git	Eugene Yarmash	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 10 - Git	Tejas Savaliya	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 11 - Git	netizen24601	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 12 - Git	Erich Meissner	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 13 - Git	Karishma Sukhwani	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 14 - Git	gtxtreme	View Answer on Stackoverflow