Category: Git

Git: Configuring Different Git User Info Depending on Projects

PROBLEM

Given, the following global config stored under ~/.gitconfig…

[user]
    name = Shitty Developer
    email = shittydeveloper@work.com

When committing any code, the above user info will always be used.

However, there are times you want to use a different user info depending on projects (ex: work projects, GitHub projects, etc)

SOLUTION

This is one of many ways to solve this problem.

Let’s assume shittydeveloper@work.com configured in ~/.gitconfig is reserved for work-related projects.

To set up a different user email for GitHub projects, modify ~/.gitconfig with the following configuration:-

[user]
    name = Shitty Developer
    email = shittydeveloper@work.com

[includeIf "gitdir:~/github/"]
    path = ~/github/.gitconfig

Under ~/github/.gitconfig, add your GitHub user account’s email:-

[user]
    email = shittydeveloper@personal.com

If the checked out project resides under ~/github/ directory, any committed code will now use shittydeveloper@personal.com instead of shittydeveloper@work.com.

Git + Linux: (gnome-ssh-askpass:24871): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:

PROBLEM

When running git clone on Linux, the following error appears:-

-bash-4.1$ git clone http://user@tfs:8080/tfs/my-institution/my-domain/_git/my-project
Initialized empty Git repository in /people/my-group/user/my-project/.git/

(gnome-ssh-askpass:24871): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:

SOLUTION

To fix this, run the following command to disable gnome-ssh-askpass:-

-bash-4.1$ unset SSH_ASKPASS

Now, git clone will work just fine:-

-bash-4.1$ git clone http://user@tfs:8080/tfs/my-institution/my-domain/_git/my-project
Initialized empty Git repository in /people/my-group/user/my-project/.git/
Password:
remote:
remote:                    fTfs
remote:                  fSSSSSSSs
remote:                fSSSSSSSSSS
remote: TSSf         fSSSSSSSSSSSS
remote: SSSSSF     fSSSSSSST SSSSS
remote: SSfSSSSSsfSSSSSSSt   SSSSS
remote: SS  tSSSSSSSSSs      SSSSS
remote: SS   fSSSSSSST       SSSSS
remote: SS fSSSSSFSSSSSSf    SSSSS
remote: SSSSSST    FSSSSSSFt SSSSS
remote: SSSSt        FSSSSSSSSSSSS
remote:                FSSSSSSSSSS
remote:                  FSSSSSSs
remote:                    FSFs    (TM)
remote:
remote:  Microsoft (R) Visual Studio (R) Team Foundation Server
remote:
Receiving objects: 100% (504/504), 1.05 MiB, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (138/138), done.

To prevent this from happening again, add unset SSH_ASKPASS command to .bashrc file.