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Get a contributor account

Who can apply for an account?

Well basically anybody, but of course it has to be Xfce related. If you want to translate, a GIT account is not needed, you should read this first.
That said, please only apply for an account only if you think that you will work on Xfce for a somewhat longer time. If you know that you will only work for a couple of weeks and then never again, please consider not applying for an Xfce account but instead continue to put patches in the bug tracker.

We also value if you show you work or patches before applying, so we have at least a bit of understanding what you're capable of and if the idea fits in the Xfce philosophy.

The limitations are not there to exclude anyone – they are there to ensure that the maintenance of accounts remains reasonable. Of course, to be clear: the Xfce sysadmins have the last word about whether or not to create an account for somebody.

SSH

For a secure connection to push Git commits, the Xfce project uses SSH keys to authorize on the server.

Generating a SSH key

If you already have an ssh key, you can just use the existing key instead of creating a new one

SSH keys are stored in your home directory in the ~/.ssh directory. To generate a key pair use the following command:

ssh-keygen -b 4096 -t rsa
The Xfce servers support the types RSA, DSA and ECDSA. For RSA/DSA use sufficient bits like 2048 or 4096.

When the command asks for the passphrase it is advised to set a relatively simple password. This password is used to unlock the key when you use it. For more information on how to create a pair of SSH keys, please refer to a SSH documentation or book.

Using a key without a passphrase is basically the same as writing down that random password. Anyone who gains access to your computer has gained access to every system you use that key with. The solution is to add a passphrase to the SSH key, for an extra layer of security.

See also: How to work with ssh-agent.

Now that you are finished generating your key pair, you will have two files: a private key and a public key. If you have accepted the default filename, they will be respectively $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa and $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa.pub or $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa and $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub, depending on the type of key you have specified.

The private key must remain secret, do not publish it to anyone under any circumstance.

The public key can be published and shall be sent when you are applying for an Xfce GIT account.

Apply for an account

Now you are ready to apply for for an Xfce contributor account. When you register, you will need to enter your name and an e-mail address, which has to be your own. Of course, do not forget that this email address becomes public (at least through Git) so you will unfortunately get some spam as a result.

  1. Send a mail to accounts@xfce.org containing the following information:
    1. Your full name
    2. Permanent email address
    3. Requested account name 1)
    4. Explanation why you think you should get an account (in English please)
  2. The sysadmin with reply to the email (this might take a couple of days)
  3. If the access is approved, attach (do not paste inline!) the public part of your passphrase protected SSH version 2 key pair (usually ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub or ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub). Only attach one key, you can add more keys later yourself.
1)
lowercase letters a-z, the name should also be easily connectable to the full name, try to avoid nick-names