Accounts on GNU machines

The GNU Project has a general login server named fencepost.gnu.org which GNU contributors can have access to. Some information for GNU maintainers is also kept (only) on that host.

The GNU Project also runs a hosting site, savannah.gnu.org. All GNU packages are welcome and encouraged to use it, and non-GNU packages are welcome too. Creating accounts on Savannah is done through its web interface. Please note, Savannah and fencepost accounts are not linked. You will need to contact accounts@gnu.org if you have lost access to your account.

(Additional resources for GNU developers are available, besides these accounts.)

If you don't have a Savannah account

You need to create a Savannah account and upload your SSH public keys to Savannah. To create your account, do the following:

  • Visit https://savannah.gnu.org (your browser will need to support https).
  • Follow the “New User” link, and follow the directions.
  • Aside: to manage your web pages, source code, and/or ftp area (these are all independent), you can register a project using the “Register New Project” link.

If you have a Savannah account, but no SSH key uploaded

To upload your OpenSSH public key, do the following:

  • On each machine from which you'll want to connect to Savannah, run ssh-keygen to generate an SSH RSA keypair. The resulting public key will be left in ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub, which contains one very long line of ASCII text. (Do not use DSA keys.)
  • Log in to Savannah in a web browser.
  • Click the “My Account Conf” item in the left-hand navigation bar.
  • On the resulting page, click “Register an SSH Public Key” (under “Authentication Setup”).
  • Paste your SSH RSA public keys in the “Authorized keys” text field. Make sure there are no line breaks within a key. Then click the “Update” button.
  • This will bring you back to the “My Account Configuration” page. Verify that the number of “SSH Public Keys registered” is the same number that you actually uploaded. If it is higher, then some extra line breaks snuck in, so you need to try again.

(By the way, you'll also need to have an SSH key uploaded in order to make commits to repositories.)

If you have a Savannah account, but no GPG key uploaded

  • If you have no GPG key, run gpg --gen-key in order to generate a key.
  • Export your public key to a text file: gpg -a --export [your-key-fingerprint] > key.asc. Key fingerprint is a 40-digit hexadecimal number, you can see it when you run gpg --list-secret-keys.
  • Log in to your account and visit “My Account Conf” → “Edit GPG Key.”
  • Paste your key and check it with the “Test GPG keys” button.
  • If everything looks good, register your key with the “Update” button.

If you have a Savannah account, with GPG and SSH keys uploaded

If you have an account on savannah.gnu.org and have registered SSH and GPG public keys, you can request an account on fencepost by sending email to <accounts@gnu.org> with the following information:

  • Your full name.
  • Primary uses of your fencepost account (e.g., “maintainer of GNU Foobar”).
  • Requested username for fencepost account.
  • An email address that does not deliver via FSF or GNU.
  • Phone numbers and time of day where we can contact you to confirm fingerprints.
  • Your postal mailing address.
  • The SSH and GPG public keys you registered on Savannah.

Sign your message before sending with a command like gpg --clear-sign message.txt.

Your SSH public key from Savannah will be used for access to fencepost. Your fencepost account can be used for email, development and testing related to your work on GNU.

First login on fencepost.gnu.org

When you first connect to fencepost through SSH, you'll be asked to check the server's credentials, to make sure you're actually logging in to the right place. These are the server key fingerprints you'll need to refer to:

MD5:55:23:ff:9b:99:f9:22:9f:f5:13:0a:2d:cf:95:f6:1c (ECDSA)
SHA1:PwFxrP+J+MybPOEhdvHJjOyL0gY (ECDSA)
SHA256:6HeGFTQhtyLK0u0XKdBv9SGMah66U0p9ySFFNtmyOHw (ECDSA)

MD5:d7:a6:2f:cd:d1:41:98:5b:08:a1:05:78:d3:60:26:6f (ED25519)
SHA1:xBmVAtTHqizFAEARh7Ioq6DLRWQ (ED25519)
SHA256:czIgr7VZvWzBireMUixS42C5dnq/H5DaRAbTD2Kgqpw (ED25519)

MD5:20:28:96:d6:a4:bc:61:4c:b0:85:19:59:0c:97:2a:5b (RSA)
SHA1:FzgYkkk/ldpguQhbZr0YuY6+/CM (RSA)
SHA256:vT5Iajj0kxjRZQqh6JCI2DoRrBzgbvgHCs3vZoWKHQE (RSA)

Those fingerprints should work with Trisquel 7, 8 and 9.

Problems?

If you have questions, problems, or suggestions about this web page, the account process, or GNU infrastructure, please see the Information for GNU Maintainers.

If you have questions about or problems with using fencepost once you have an account, additional user support is available on the fencepost-users mailing list. Feel free to subscribe.