Hackathons/Laptop setup/SSH

No matter what OS you're using, if you have a working install of Git, you have everything you'll need to create an account on Wikimedia's Gerrit setup.

In these steps, we'll make sure your computer has an SSH key that you can share with the Gerrit system. The public key can be shared with Gerrit to identify you; later, your own computer will prove it has the corresponding private key, permitting you to access Gerrit.

Open a Git-enhanced command prompt
On Mac OS or Linux, follow the instructions you've already used to open a command prompt.

On Windows, take the following special actions:


 * Click Start, then Programs, then Git. Choose Git Bash from the options.

This gives you a Git-enhanced, UNIX-esque command prompt.

Find out if your system already has an SSH key
If your computer already has an SSH key, you can stop. So now is a good time to find out.

Type this exactly into the command prompt:

ls $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

If you get a message like this:

ls: cannot access /home/myself/.ssh/id_rsa.pub: No such file or directory

...then you should continue with these steps. If instead you see just this:

id_rsa.pub

...this means that your computer already has an SSH key, and you should scroll to the end and click Return to laptop setup.

Creating a new SSH key
To generate a new key, type:

ssh-keygen

This will ask you a bunch of questions, including some about a passphrase. Press enter to accept all the defaults.

That's it!

Return to laptop setup
&laquo; Return to laptop setup