# Prepare your environment

This page is a quick-reference checklist for setting up a new machine to contribute to OSM via GitLab.

## 1. Create an SSH key

```bash
ssh-keygen
```

Accept the default path (`~/.ssh/id_rsa`). Add an optional passphrase.

## 2. Add your public key to GitLab

1. Go to [https://osm.etsi.org/gitlab/](https://osm.etsi.org/gitlab/) and sign in.
2. Navigate to **Edit Profile → SSH Keys**.
3. Paste the contents of `~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub` into the **Key** field.
4. Set a title and an expiry date (maximum one year), then click **Add key**.

## 3. Configure `~/.ssh/config`

```text
Host osm.etsi.org
  Hostname osm.etsi.org
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
  PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms +ssh-rsa
  HostkeyAlgorithms +ssh-rsa
```

Test the connection:

```bash
ssh -p 29419 osm.etsi.org
```

## 4. Configure Git

```bash
git config --global user.name <your_etsi_user>
git config --global user.email <email>
```

The username and email must match your GitLab profile.

**Note:** Your email address will be visible on commits. If you'd like to keep it private, you can use a masked address — e.g. if your email is `name@company.com`, set `user.email` to `hidden@company.com`. This lets other users identify you by username while Git stats still track your company's contributions by domain.

If you use the same machine for other projects, you can restrict these settings to a specific repository:

```bash
cd <osm_project_local_folder>
git config --local user.name <your_etsi_user>
git config --local user.email <email>
```

Verify:

```bash
git config -l
```

## 5. Clone a project

```bash
git clone ssh://git@osm.etsi.org:29419/osm/<project>.git
```

To clone all the main OSM projects at once:

```bash
mkdir -p ~/OSM/
cd ~/OSM
BRANCH=master
for PROJECT in common devops IM LCM MON NBI NG-SA NG-UI osmclient RO tests
do
  git clone ssh://git@osm.etsi.org:29419/osm/${PROJECT}.git
  git -C ${PROJECT} checkout ${BRANCH}
done
```

You are now ready to contribute. See [Contributing Code](07-contributing-code.md) for the full contribution workflow.