How to Specify an SSH Key for Git Push Command

In some cases, you may want to specify an SSH key directly in the Git push command without configuring a permanent SSH setting. You can do this by overriding the SSH command Git uses temporarily.

Steps

To specify the SSH key for a git push command, you can use the GIT_SSH_COMMAND environment variable. This allows you to define the SSH key for a single command without altering global SSH or Git configuration.

Example Command:

GIT_SSH_COMMAND="ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_custom" git push origin main

Explanation:

• GIT_SSH_COMMAND="ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_custom": This overrides the SSH command that Git uses, specifying the custom SSH key you want (~/.ssh/id_rsa_custom in this case).
• git push origin main: Standard Git push command that pushes your changes to the remote repository (origin), on the main branch.

Advantages

• Temporary: This method only applies to the current Git command, so there is no need to permanently change the SSH configuration.
• Flexible: You can switch between different SSH keys as needed for specific repositories or branches.

By using this approach, you can easily manage multiple SSH keys without changing your global configuration or SSH config file.