submit50

submit50 is a command-line tool with which you can submit work (e.g., problem sets) to a course (e.g., CS50). It’s based on git, a “distributed version control system” that allows you to save different versions of files without having to give each version a unique filename (as you might be wont to do on your own Mac or PC!). Via submit50 and, in turn, git can you thus submit work multiple times (i.e., multiple versions thereof).

When you run submit50, your files are “pushed” (i.e., uploaded) to CS50’s “organization” (also named “submit50”) on GitHub, a popular service via which developers (like you!) can share code. Your files are stored in a “repository” (a folder, essentially) to which only you and some of CS50’s staff have access (and anyone else to whom you grant access). Your work can thus be reviewed and scored in one central place, whether you wrote it in CS50 IDE or elsewhere!

Installation

  1. Install Python 3.6 or later, if you haven’t already.

  2. Install pip, if you haven’t already.

  3. Install submit50 itself:

    pip3 install submit50
    

Note: If on Windows, please first install Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). We recommend choosing the Ubuntu distribution. Then within WSL, follow the above steps to install submit50.

Upgrading

pip3 install --upgrade submit50

Usage

usage: submit50 [-h] [--logout] [--log-level {debug,info,warning,error}] [-V] slug

positional arguments:
  slug                  prescribed identifier of work to submit

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

  --logout              logout of submit50

  --log-level {debug,info,warning,error}
                        warning: displays usage warnings.
                        info: adds all commands run.
                        debug: adds the output of all commands run.

  -V, --version         show program's version number and exit

Examples

Submitting with submit50

To submit work with submit50, cd to the work’s directory and execute

submit50 slug

where slug is the unique identifier for the work you’re submitting, as prescribed by the course (as in a problem’s specification). Although the slug might resemble the path to a directory, it’s simply a unique identifier, independent of your own work’s location. If you’ve not recently run submit50 (within the past week), you might be prompted to log in with your GitHub username and password. (Per the source code for submit50, your username and password are sent only to GitHub, not to CS50’s own servers.) You will then be prompted to confirm whether you indeed want to submit one or more files from your current directory, unless you’re missing one or more required files, in which case submit50 will instead exit without submitting anything.

Via SSH

By default, submit50 pushes your work to GitHub via HTTPS, which requires your GitHub username and password, which is why submit50 prompts you for both at least once per week. If you’d prefer not to provide submit50 with your GitHub username and password at all, you can instead push your work to GitHub via SSH. Configure your workspace on CS50 IDE (or your own computer) as follows.

  1. Generate an SSH key and add it to ssh-agent.

  2. Add the SSH key to your GitHub account.

  3. Execute

    ssh -T -p443 git@ssh.github.com
    

    to add ssh.github.com to the list of known hosts for ssh, answering “yes” if prompted whether you’re sure you want to continue connecting. If all goes well, you should see the message

    Hi <USERNAME>! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.
    Connection to github.com closed.
    

(where <USERNAME> is your GitHub username).

Thereafter, you should be able to run submit50 without ever being prompted for your GitHub username or password.

Submitting without submit50

If comfortable with git, you can submit work without submit50. Simply push your work to the expected branch (i.e., the work’s prescribed slug which is found in the “How to Submit” section of each project.) of https://github.com/submit50/jharvard (or git@github.com:submit50/jharvard.git), where jharvard is your own GitHub username. To get started, either clone that repository or add it to an existing repository as a remote.

On each such branch, take care to create a .gitignore file based on https://github.com/cs50/checks/raw/master/slug/submit50/exclude, where slug is as before, so that you don’t submit files that submit50 would otherwise ignore.

Note again that the branch should not be master, main, or the like, and instead be the work’s prescribed slug as listed in the project specification.

Implementation Details

To see how submit50 uses git underneath the hood, execute

submit50 --log-level info slug

or

submit50 --log-level debug slug

where slug is the unique identifier for the work you’re submitting.

FAQs

Do I need to provide submit50 with my GitHub username and password?

Nope, you can instead authenticate via SSH.

If I use git locally, will submit50 affect my local repository?

Nope, submit50 uses its own GIT_DIR (in /tmp). It will ignore any .git directory that you might have locally.

How does submit50 remember my GitHub password?

submit50 remembers your username and password in RAM using git-credential-cache. Your password is never stored on disk or transmitted elsewhere.

Source Code

https://github.com/cs50/submit50