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Managing Multiple Git Repositories

When your codebase becomes too large to maintain in a single Git repository, you should consider using multiple repositories. This guide explains how to manage multiple Git repositories effectively.

Prerequisites​

Before you start managing multiple repositories, ensure the following prerequisites are met:

  • Your public SSH keys (id_ecdsa.pub / id_rsa.pub / id_ed25519.pub, etc.) are added to your GitHub and GitLab profiles.
  • Your private SSH keys (id_ecdsa / id_rsa / id_ed25519, etc.) are added and persisted in your operating system's keychain.
  • Your SSH config file (~/.ssh/config) is properly configured with keys for GitHub and GitLab.

Example SSH config:

.ssh/config
Host github.com
Hostname github.com
AddKeysToAgent yes
UseKeychain yes
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa

Host gitlab.com
Hostname gitlab.com
AddKeysToAgent yes
UseKeychain yes
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Or, for multiple users:

.ssh/config
Host github.com-user
HostName github.com
User git
IdentityFile /home/user/.ssh/id_ed25519

Host gitlab.com
PreferredAuthentications publickey
IdentityFile /home/user/.ssh/id_ed25519_2

Setting Up Multiple Repositories​

  1. Initialize Git in a directory:
git init
  1. Connect Git to one remote repository (located on GitHub):
git remote add origin [email protected]:your-username/your-repo.git
  1. Rename the .git directory to something like .github:
mv .git .github
  1. Initialize Git again:
git init
  1. Connect Git to the other remote repository (located on GitLab):
git remote add origin [email protected]:your-username/your-repo.git
  1. Rename the .git directory to something like .gitlab:
mv .git .gitlab
  1. Verify that the current directory is connected to two different remote repositories:
git --git-dir=.github remote -v

Working with Multiple Repositories​

  • Pull changes from remote repositories (GitHub and GitLab):
git --git-dir=.github pull origin main
  • Add a file to both repositories:
git --git-dir=.github add README.md
  • Commit changes:
git --git-dir=.github commit -m "Operational overview"
  • Push changes to the remote repositories:
git --git-dir=.gitlab push -u origin main

For frequent use, consider adding an alias in your shell configuration file (e.g., .zprofile, .bashrc, etc.):

export github="git --git-dir=.github"

This allows you to perform future operations, such as pulling, pushing, adding, and committing, more conveniently, like so:

github pull origin main

You can create similar aliases for other repositories as needed.