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Show HN: Switch Git Users CLI

140 points by geongeorgek 6y ago

geongeorgek 6y ago
Author here! I'm a freelancer working for multiple agencies at the moment. And One of the requirements was that I use the agency email for all commits. So I made this as a sugar for git config user.email whatever@gmail.com
- Foxboron 6y ago
  https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#_conditional_includes https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#_conditional_includes Is a lot easier then what you came up with.
  - geongeorgek 6y ago
    Thanks. This is perfect but I also like the convenience of a quick switcher for any folder.
- JimDabell 6y ago
  I find that creating a separate user account on my system for each client works much better for this kind of thing than trying to configure every application with multiple identities.
  - edoceo 6y ago
    More isolation, less accidents. I use this way too.
Foxboron 6y ago
A 1000 line YARN lock file for something that would be roughly 20 lines of bash is amazing and terrifying at the same time.
- gnagatomo 6y ago
  Can you show us your take on the bash solution?
- cdubzzz 6y ago
  Let’s see the 20 lines of bash that replicate all the features of this utility. Should fit in an HN comment nicely.
- boogies 6y ago
  > roughly 20 lines of bash various permutations of which were posted an hour ago and are currently higher than this comment, so I’m confused why multiple people asked to see them ~30½ minutes ago
  - cdubzzz 6y ago
    I asked because none of the posted permutations offer the same feature set. Specifically, the nice thing about this utility (and reason for the dependencies) is interactive adding and selecting of identities. If this can replicated in bash, I am legitimately interested in seeing it, 20 lines or not.
    - Foxboron 6y ago
      Implement the `git identity` portion listed earlier with a `identity-list` utilizing `git config --get-regexp`. If you need interactivity you can tie it together with fzf and some awk.
      - cdubzzz 6y ago
        So, not a 20 line bash script and at least two big dependencies. Sounds a lot like what you were poking fun at.
        boogies 6y ago
        > at least two big dependencies Awk (a fraction of busybox’s 2.1 MBs) is a “big dependency”‽ Or maybe you’re saying git is‽ Edit: quote
archseer 6y ago
git has a similar feature built in: https://deepsource.io/blog/managing-different-git-profiles/ https://deepsource.io/blog/managing-different-git-profiles/
- andreineculau 6y ago
  !!! which not only covers the identity scenario but the whole configuration of git, which can be indeed very different from repo to repo, from company to company
pavlo 6y ago
This is a great looking tool. What I have been doing by hand for some time is putting code for different customers in different directories and having a conditional in `~/.gitconfig` to determine what config applies there: [includeIf "gitdir:~/projects-private/**"] path = ./.gitconfig-private [includeIf "gitdir:~/projects-client/**"] path = ./.gitconfig-work Then in .gitconfig-private or .gitconfig-work I have all the usual gitconfig settings that apply, for example the [user] section... Switching to the right directory thus automatically changes the settings.
- diggan 6y ago
  The CLI tool looks very great indeed and handy when you keep all the projects in the same top-level directory, or need to be able to change identity while in the same repository. However, your .gitconfig setup is (for me) way nicer as I already have things split up by GitHub organization, and now my identity can change without having to do anything at all. So thanks for sharing that, had no idea it was possible.
- geongeorgek 6y ago
  Thanks for sharing this. This was what I was missing. Should've done proper research before building. I'd still think the cli could be useful in some situations. but I agree with others about how big this had to be because I used node.
  - pavlo 6y ago
    I think a tool that has a similar UX as your is handy if a person don't care or want to memorise the gitconfig documentation to figure this out. Which, I think, is true even for most of the developers. I have found this one out by a coincidence myself.
- gru 6y ago
  This is the approach that works very well for me. Especially since I keep my repos cloned into a directory structure inspired by "go get" using https://github.com/grdl/git-get https://github.com/grdl/git-get
oefrha 6y ago
Without using include in gitconfig: #!/usr/bin/env zsh case $1 in foo) git config user.name 'John Doe' git config user.email john@example.com git config user.signingKey 0xFFFFFFFF ;; bar) git config user.name 'Jane Doe' git config user.email jane@example.com git config user.signingKey 0xEEEEEEEE ;; baz) git config user.name 'My Dog' git config user.email dog@example.com git config user.signingKey 0xDDDDDDDD ;; *) echo "usage: git-user foo|bar|baz" >&2 exit 1 ;; esac Done. Btw probably want to add signingKey support.
zachrip 6y ago
Looks neat, but I agree with others about using conditional includes instead. Perhaps this tool could build on that?
Icyphox 6y ago
Could've been written in a 30–40 line shell script, heh.
enriquto 6y ago
What's the point of writing this simple tool in js? I'd like to use it but I don't have npm everywhere (and I don't want to grab a huge tree of dependencies just for editing a couple of lines on a text file...)
- cdubzzz 6y ago
  I suspect it was written in JS because that was the author’s language of choice. There are lots of ways to manage git identities and this seems like a decent utility for web devs who already have node installed and don’t care to manually edit config files.
  - enriquto 6y ago
    Of course, but my point is that these kind of tools are of general interest, and most programmers are not web developers.
    - benmller313 6y ago
      Javascript is a general interest language imo.
- maple3142 6y ago
  I think one of the benefit of using js to write cli tool is that you can install them very easily on Windows.
varl 6y ago
I found this user management strategy somewhere, and it's been working great for me: git config --global --unset user.name git config --global --unset user.email git config --global --unset user.signingkey git config --global user.useConfigOnly true git config --global user.<id>.name "<name>" git config --global user.<id>.email "<email>" git config --global alias.identity '! git config user.name "$(git config user.$1.name)"; git config user.email "$(git config user.$1.email)"; :' So given that I have created two users, e.g. personal and work I run: git identity work in repos that need the work name/e-mail, and git identity personal in the ones that are private.
- 0xEFF 6y ago
  I find it much easier to use direnv and set GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL in each of ~/work/.envrc and ~/personal/.envrc No need to reconfigure every repo this way.
  - cbcoutinho 6y ago
    I do the same. Also remember the following keyword if you use nested .envrc files: source_up If you don't use this in any nested envrc files, the settings don't carry over which means your git settings are not maintained. It is kind of an escape hatch as the parent files are not verified in the same way normal envrc files are, but I have found the trade off to be worth it
  - augusto-moura 6y ago
    Git has conditional includes based on path[1]. My configuration is like: On ~/.gitconfig [user] name = personal email = personal@example.com [includeIF "gitdir:~/workspace/"] path = ~/work.gitconfig Then on ~/work.gitconfig [user] name = workname email = work@example.com [1] https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#_conditional_includes https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#_conditional_includes
    - grenoire 6y ago
      Woah, this is neat!
SparkyMcUnicorn 6y ago
This line makes it not very useful, because I have to re-add accounts for each project. const store = require("data-store")({ path: process.cwd() + "/data.json" }); I think a `git-user-data.json` file in a centralized location makes far more sense.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
KuiN 6y ago
Have seen more than a few attempts to solve this problem. Here's my version[0] and there's many more on GitHub. Wonder if there's an opportunity to unify our efforts & get something into git contrib? [0] - https://github.com/bobbo/git-profile https://github.com/bobbo/git-profile
mr-karan 6y ago
I currently use [karn](https://github.com/prydonius/karn https://github.com/prydonius/karn) to manage multiple `git` identities. Works pretty nice.
- captn3m0 6y ago
  +1 for karn. Works nicely with any directory hierarchy.
miguelmota 6y ago
This package installed 47.4MiB of node_modules. Yikes.
29athrowaway 6y ago
You can have a per-project git config, which to me is a more convenient solution. For my work repo I configure the repo to use my work identity. For my personal repos I use my personal identity. I do not need to switch identities when using the same repo. Doing this, you only setup your identity once per repo not every time, which is safer/less error prone. i.e.: you wont leak your work email on github by accident.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
gurjeet 6y ago
I rely on Git's `user.useConfigOnly` option to force myself to set my email per repository. This is what my `user` section in ~/.gitconfig looks like. [user] name = Gurjeet Singh # Tell Git to _not_ guess my name and email based on `whoami` and `hostname` useConfigOnly = true With this in place, whenever I try to commit for the first time in a repository, Git prompts me *** Please tell me who you are.* I then add an email address to the repo-local config based on whether it's work or personal project. git config user.email me@example.com

140 points by geongeorgek 6y ago

Author here! I'm a freelancer working for multiple agencies at the moment. And One of the requirements was that I use the agency email for all commits. So I made this as a sugar for git config user.email whatever@gmail.com

Foxboron 6y ago
https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#_conditional_includes https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#_conditional_includes Is a lot easier then what you came up with.
- geongeorgek 6y ago
  Thanks. This is perfect but I also like the convenience of a quick switcher for any folder.
JimDabell 6y ago
I find that creating a separate user account on my system for each client works much better for this kind of thing than trying to configure every application with multiple identities.
- edoceo 6y ago
  More isolation, less accidents. I use this way too.

Foxboron 6y ago

A 1000 line YARN lock file for something that would be roughly 20 lines of bash is amazing and terrifying at the same time.

gnagatomo 6y ago
Can you show us your take on the bash solution?
cdubzzz 6y ago
Let’s see the 20 lines of bash that replicate all the features of this utility. Should fit in an HN comment nicely.
boogies 6y ago
> roughly 20 lines of bash various permutations of which were posted an hour ago and are currently higher than this comment, so I’m confused why multiple people asked to see them ~30½ minutes ago
- cdubzzz 6y ago
  I asked because none of the posted permutations offer the same feature set. Specifically, the nice thing about this utility (and reason for the dependencies) is interactive adding and selecting of identities. If this can replicated in bash, I am legitimately interested in seeing it, 20 lines or not.
  - Foxboron 6y ago
    Implement the `git identity` portion listed earlier with a `identity-list` utilizing `git config --get-regexp`. If you need interactivity you can tie it together with fzf and some awk.
    - cdubzzz 6y ago
      So, not a 20 line bash script and at least two big dependencies. Sounds a lot like what you were poking fun at.
      - boogies 6y ago
        > at least two big dependencies Awk (a fraction of busybox’s 2.1 MBs) is a “big dependency”‽ Or maybe you’re saying git is‽ Edit: quote

archseer 6y ago

git has a similar feature built in: https://deepsource.io/blog/managing-different-git-profiles/ https://deepsource.io/blog/managing-different-git-profiles/

andreineculau 6y ago
!!! which not only covers the identity scenario but the whole configuration of git, which can be indeed very different from repo to repo, from company to company

pavlo 6y ago

This is a great looking tool. What I have been doing by hand for some time is putting code for different customers in different directories and having a conditional in `~/.gitconfig` to determine what config applies there: [includeIf "gitdir:~/projects-private/**"] path = ./.gitconfig-private [includeIf "gitdir:~/projects-client/**"] path = ./.gitconfig-work Then in .gitconfig-private or .gitconfig-work I have all the usual gitconfig settings that apply, for example the [user] section... Switching to the right directory thus automatically changes the settings.

diggan 6y ago
The CLI tool looks very great indeed and handy when you keep all the projects in the same top-level directory, or need to be able to change identity while in the same repository. However, your .gitconfig setup is (for me) way nicer as I already have things split up by GitHub organization, and now my identity can change without having to do anything at all. So thanks for sharing that, had no idea it was possible.
geongeorgek 6y ago
Thanks for sharing this. This was what I was missing. Should've done proper research before building. I'd still think the cli could be useful in some situations. but I agree with others about how big this had to be because I used node.
- pavlo 6y ago
  I think a tool that has a similar UX as your is handy if a person don't care or want to memorise the gitconfig documentation to figure this out. Which, I think, is true even for most of the developers. I have found this one out by a coincidence myself.
gru 6y ago
This is the approach that works very well for me. Especially since I keep my repos cloned into a directory structure inspired by "go get" using https://github.com/grdl/git-get https://github.com/grdl/git-get

oefrha 6y ago

Without using include in gitconfig: #!/usr/bin/env zsh case $1 in foo) git config user.name 'John Doe' git config user.email john@example.com git config user.signingKey 0xFFFFFFFF ;; bar) git config user.name 'Jane Doe' git config user.email jane@example.com git config user.signingKey 0xEEEEEEEE ;; baz) git config user.name 'My Dog' git config user.email dog@example.com git config user.signingKey 0xDDDDDDDD ;; *) echo "usage: git-user foo|bar|baz" >&2 exit 1 ;; esac Done. Btw probably want to add signingKey support.

zachrip 6y ago

Looks neat, but I agree with others about using conditional includes instead. Perhaps this tool could build on that?

Icyphox 6y ago

Could've been written in a 30–40 line shell script, heh.

enriquto 6y ago

What's the point of writing this simple tool in js? I'd like to use it but I don't have npm everywhere (and I don't want to grab a huge tree of dependencies just for editing a couple of lines on a text file...)

cdubzzz 6y ago
I suspect it was written in JS because that was the author’s language of choice. There are lots of ways to manage git identities and this seems like a decent utility for web devs who already have node installed and don’t care to manually edit config files.
- enriquto 6y ago
  Of course, but my point is that these kind of tools are of general interest, and most programmers are not web developers.
  - benmller313 6y ago
    Javascript is a general interest language imo.
maple3142 6y ago
I think one of the benefit of using js to write cli tool is that you can install them very easily on Windows.

varl 6y ago

I found this user management strategy somewhere, and it's been working great for me: git config --global --unset user.name git config --global --unset user.email git config --global --unset user.signingkey git config --global user.useConfigOnly true git config --global user.<id>.name "<name>" git config --global user.<id>.email "<email>" git config --global alias.identity '! git config user.name "$(git config user.$1.name)"; git config user.email "$(git config user.$1.email)"; :' So given that I have created two users, e.g. personal and work I run: git identity work in repos that need the work name/e-mail, and git identity personal in the ones that are private.

0xEFF 6y ago
I find it much easier to use direnv and set GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL in each of ~/work/.envrc and ~/personal/.envrc No need to reconfigure every repo this way.
- cbcoutinho 6y ago
  I do the same. Also remember the following keyword if you use nested .envrc files: source_up If you don't use this in any nested envrc files, the settings don't carry over which means your git settings are not maintained. It is kind of an escape hatch as the parent files are not verified in the same way normal envrc files are, but I have found the trade off to be worth it
- augusto-moura 6y ago
  Git has conditional includes based on path[1]. My configuration is like: On ~/.gitconfig [user] name = personal email = personal@example.com [includeIF "gitdir:~/workspace/"] path = ~/work.gitconfig Then on ~/work.gitconfig [user] name = workname email = work@example.com [1] https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#_conditional_includes https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#_conditional_includes
  - grenoire 6y ago
    Woah, this is neat!

SparkyMcUnicorn 6y ago

This line makes it not very useful, because I have to re-add accounts for each project. const store = require("data-store")({ path: process.cwd() + "/data.json" }); I think a `git-user-data.json` file in a centralized location makes far more sense.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

KuiN 6y ago

Have seen more than a few attempts to solve this problem. Here's my version[0] and there's many more on GitHub. Wonder if there's an opportunity to unify our efforts & get something into git contrib? [0] - https://github.com/bobbo/git-profile https://github.com/bobbo/git-profile

mr-karan 6y ago

I currently use [karn](https://github.com/prydonius/karn https://github.com/prydonius/karn) to manage multiple `git` identities. Works pretty nice.

captn3m0 6y ago
+1 for karn. Works nicely with any directory hierarchy.

miguelmota 6y ago

This package installed 47.4MiB of node_modules. Yikes.

29athrowaway 6y ago

You can have a per-project git config, which to me is a more convenient solution. For my work repo I configure the repo to use my work identity. For my personal repos I use my personal identity. I do not need to switch identities when using the same repo. Doing this, you only setup your identity once per repo not every time, which is safer/less error prone. i.e.: you wont leak your work email on github by accident.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

gurjeet 6y ago

I rely on Git's `user.useConfigOnly` option to force myself to set my email per repository. This is what my `user` section in ~/.gitconfig looks like. [user] name = Gurjeet Singh # Tell Git to _not_ guess my name and email based on `whoami` and `hostname` useConfigOnly = true With this in place, whenever I try to commit for the first time in a repository, Git prompts me *** Please tell me who you are.* I then add an email address to the repo-local config based on whether it's work or personal project. git config user.email me@example.com