# First Steps on pagure

When coming to pagure for the first time there are a few things one should do or check to ensure all works as desired.

## Log in to pagure or create your account

Pagure has its own user account system.

For instances of pagure such as the one at pagure.io where the authentication is delegated to a third party (in the case of pagure.io, the Fedora Account System) via OpenID, the local user account is created upon login.

This means, you cannot be added to a group or a project before you log in for the first time as the system will simply not know you.

If you run your own pagure instance which uses the local authentication system, then you will find on the login page an option to create a new account.

## Upload your SSH key

Pagure uses gitolite to manage who has read/write access to which git repository via ssh.

An ssh key is composed of two parts:

- a private key, which you must keep to yourself and never share with anyone.

- a public key, which is public and therefore can be shared with anyone.

If you have never generated a ssh key, you can do so by running:

    ssh-keygen

or alternatively on GNOME using the application `seahorse`.

This will create two files in `~/.ssh/` (`~` is the symbol for your home folder).

These two files will be named (for example) `id_rsa` and `id_rsa.pub`. The first one is the private key that must never be shared. The second is the public key that can be uploaded on pagure to give you ssh access.

To upload your public key onto pagure:

1. Log in to pagure and click on the user icon on the top right corner, there, select `My settings`.

2. In the authentication section of your user settings copy the content of your `id_rsa.pub` file in the Public SSH key text box and save your ssh key settings.

Note

Pagure supports multiple ssh keys per user. To add more than one ssh key to your user account just add your new ssh key in your authentication settings (one key per row), this way you will be able to push commits to your repository from a different computer.

## Configure the default email address

If the pagure instance you use is using local user authentication, you can choose whichever email address you prefer to use during account creation. But in the case (like pagure.io) where the pagure instance relies on an external authentication service, the email address provided by this service may be different from the one you prefer.

The settings page of your account (see above for how to access the page) allows you to add multiple email addresses and set one as default.

Your default email address is the address that will be used to send you notifications and also as the email address in the git commit if you merge a pull-request with a merge commit.

For online editing, when doing the commit, you will be presented with the list of valid email addresses associated with your account and you will be able to choose which one you wish to use.

Note

All email addresses will need to be confirmed to be activated, this is done via a link sent by email to the address. If you do not receive this link, don’t forget to check your spam folder!