Using Git to submit assignments

Initial checkout

First, you must check out your directories from the repository. This will give you your own working copy of the files. On the GL systems, you'd use a command like this

git clone /afs/umbc.edu/users/o/l/olano/pub/class_name/username.git directory_name_of_your_choice

For example, if you were in 411 and your username was xyzzy1, you might do this:

git clone /afs/umbc.edu/users/o/l/olano/pub/411/xyzzy1.git cs411

This will create a directory called cs411 containing a new working copy of your files. This is the only time you need to tell it where the repository is. After the intial checkout, once you cd into your working directory, Git can figure out which repository to use. All of the major Git commands apply to the current directory and all directories under it.

For remote access, you'd use something like this for your Git clone instead:

git clone username@gl.umbc.edu:/afs/umbc.edu/users/o/l/olano/pub/class_name/username.git directory_name_of_your_choice

Editing

Edit away... No need to do anything special

Adding, removing, and ignoring files

Ask Git about the files it doesn't know about yet

git status

You may see sections for files "Changed but not updated" (including files previously checked in that have been modified or deleted), and/or for "Untracked files". If there are any files listed that should not be checked in (executables, object files, etc.), edit the .gitignore file and add them to the list of files Git should not track. This includes any files generated when you build — if you didn't create it, you probably don't want to check it in. Once git status just lists the files that should be checked in, you have tell Git that you really do mean to remove any that are marked to be deleted:

git rm file

Now tell Git what other files you want to commit (for new or changed files)

git add file

This is called "staging" your commit. Now you can commit a local copy of your work. This is not yet submitted, but you can use these intermediate revisions to track your work and go back to prior versions. You should give a short but useful message that will identify the main content of this commit. For example, "Initial parsing code", or "Fixed cross-product bug", etc.

git commit -m "short message"

Getting updates

If I make any changes to the initial sample files (or add some for the later assignments), you can get these using

git pull

Previous revisions

To see the set of commits, use git log

git log    # all commits
git log file   # commits for one file

Each log incudes a long hexadecimal number, which is the commit ID. To identify a commit, you only need to use enough of this number to be unique, usually the first 6-8 digits is enough.

To compare your current version of a file with any previous version, use

git diff commitID file

To revert one file to the previous version (aka cherry-pick the commit), use

git checkout commitID -- file

If you want to throw away some number of commits to start over, I strongly recommend against following any online directions recommending using git reset --hard. This command destructively removes revisions from your repository, and is responsible for many lost files that were not intended to be removed. The revert command is better and safer. It adds a new commit restoring the previous state, but your abandonded changes are still available in the previous commits if you need to cherry-pick individual file changes from those commits

git revert commitID

Submitting your changes

Your changes are not copied to the repository until you both commit them, and push them to the repository. You must do this for us to be able to check out and grade your work, but you can do it as many times as you want before then. Pushing your changes to the class repository before the deadline can help serve as a backup copy of your work, or allow you to work in multiple locations by copying changes to the main repository whenever you are done at one location before you move to the other. To push to the main repository, just do this:

git pull
git push

So we know exactly which commit you want us to grade, you'll be told a tag name to tag the commit for each assignment. To tag the latest commit with tag assn1, you'd use

git tag assn1
git push origin assn1

To tag a different commit (with commit ID found using git log), use

git tag assn1 commitID
git push origin assn1

If you realize you tagged the wrong commit, you need to remove the tag (locally, and on the server) before you retag. To remove a tag named assn1, you'd use this to remove the old tag before using one of the above methods to re-tag the submission.

git tag -d assn1
git push origin :refs/tags/assn1

Learning more

List of all Git commands

git

Help on any one Git command

git help command

And, of course, there are tons of resources on Git online