Pijul identities
Pijul identities are used to identify patch authors in a manner which provides greater security and control than simply mapping authors to a name and email address. The inclusion of a name and email address can be spoofed in a way that a key signature cannot. In addition, Pijul plans to take advantage of the fact that a user’s name and e-mail address are no longer tied to their submitted patches, allowing users to later change the name and e-mail address that other users see when they look at previously submitted patches.
The keys Pijul uses to identify path authors are independent of any SSH keys a user may have to interact with a remote. SSH keys are purely for authorizing the transport of patches to/from the Nest, and are not part of Pijul as a version control system.
You will need at least 1 identity to record changes, but can have as many as you like, for example personal, school, and work. When Pijul needs to use your identity, it will ask you to choose between them.
Generating identities
Users can generate a new identity using pijul identity new. The name used for this identity is not required to bear any relationship to a Nest username or SSH identity. On success, the location of the generated identity will be displayed to the user (it should be in the same directory as your global configuration).
The program will guide you through the following questions:
| Field | Description | Optional? | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity name | A unique name for your identity | No | default |
| Display name | How Pijul refers to you (e.g. in pijul log) | No | OS account name (e.g. “Ferris Crab”) |
| An email address for people to contact | Yes | No (empty) | |
| Encryption | If Pijul should encrypt this identity with a password | Yes | No |
| Expiry | If this identity should expire by a certain date | Yes | No |
| Remote | If this identity should be linked to a remote account (e.g. the Nest) | Yes | Yes |
Proving identities
pijul identity prove [options] <remote> is used to associate a local identity with a remote (e.g. Nest) account. Patches submitted before proving your identity will show only the key as the author, for example 44hhwRgXtFEeAt6m3KooFCQ5VowqLoQ8YkBP93UZqm9R. By default, pijul id new will do this for all new identities, so this step isn’t necessary most of the time.
Example (by default, this is already done for you):
pijul identity prove <your_username>@ssh.pijul.com