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Comprehensive Setup Guide

by Justin Hu, Bwohan Wang, Tamara Nelson-Fromm, Jenny Chen, Brad Solomon, G Carl Evans

In this guide, we will walk you through the steps to set up everything you need for CS 225 on your personal computer.

To assist you in solving common issues, the setup instructions from the lab are also available.

Lab Slides: Setup

Git

The course uses git as the version control system for your labs and MPs. We will use git to distribute the starter code for these assignments.

Creating your Git repo

This section creates a personal GitHub repository for you to store your assignments. You will only need to do this once, even if you are working on a different machine.

Complete the following steps:

  1. Visit this link, and follow the instructions on the page.
    • Setup Your Repo
    • Make sure to login to the GitHub account associated with your university email.

If the process is successful, you should see the following message: “Your personal repository is ready!”

Setting up Git

This section guides you through cloning your personal repository, and setting up the release repository for you to fetch assignment starter code. You will need to do this for every machine you are working on.

You will be working with a command prompt for this section.

  1. If you are on macOS, open Terminal.
  2. If you are on Windows, open Command Prompt.

Install Git

You may already have git installed from a previous course. If you are unsure, open a command prompt and type git - if the command is not found, git is not installed.

Complete the following steps:

  1. Download and install git.

Install the Github CLI

The GitHub CLI is a convenient tool that allows you to interact with GitHub from the command prompt. In this course, we will only use it to authenticate git with your university GitHub credentials.

Complete the following steps:

  1. Download and install the GitHub CLI.
  2. Authenticate.
    • gh auth login
    • Select the following options:
      • What account do you want to log into?: GitHub.com
      • What is your preferred protocol for Git operations?: HTTPS
      • Authenticate Git with your GitHub credentials?: Yes
      • How would you like to authenticate GitHub CLI?: Login with a web browser 9. Follow the on-screen instructions to finish authenticating.

Cloning your Git repo

Complete the following steps:

  1. In a command prompt, navigate to where you would like to store your personal repo.
    • cd Desktop-or-a-folder-of-your-choosing/
  2. Clone the repository to the current directory.
    • git clone https://github.com/illinois-cs-coursework/sp25_cs225_<your NetID here> cs225git
    • You can replace cs225git with a preferred folder name of your choice.
  3. Enter the repository directory.
    • cd cs225git (or your folder name)
  4. Add the release repo as a remote named release.
    • git remote add release https://github.com/illinois-cs-coursework/sp25_cs225_.release.git

Docker Environment

The course uses a standardized Docker environment to ensure that your code behaves on your local machine as it does when run on the autograder. You will need to redo these steps on each machine that you are using.

This is our only supported development environment. If you choose to use something else, we will not help you deal with unexpected behavior. Make sure to test in the Docker environment before you submit!

Complete the following steps:

  1. Download and install Docker Desktop.
    • Docker Desktop
    • Docker is a lightweight container engine used to emulate OS-level virtual environments. We use it to help you set up the same environment as our autograder.
  2. Download and install VS Code (if you don’t already have it).
    • VS Code
    • Since the required Dev Containers extension is proprietary, open source flavors such as Code - OSS will not work.
  3. Install the Dev Containers extension for VS Code.
    • Either search in the extensions tab, or use this link: Dev Containers
  4. In VS Code, open the directory you created earlier for CS 225 (i.e. cs225git).
  5. In the directory, created a file named Dockerfile (no file extensions)
    • Add the following content and make sure to save: 
       FROM gcevans/cs225-container:sp25
 ENTRYPOINT bash
    • As with anything you install, it is a good idea to ensure it comes from a trusted source. Although this is not required, if you would like to understand what you are installing, the underlying Dockerfile will always be publicly available for you to review in this repository.
  6. Using the Dev Containers extension, run the Open Folder in Container command.
    • Either click the bottom left-hand corner widget (the green X-shaped button), or press F1 (or Ctrl-Shift-P). If the command does not immediately show up, search the command name to bring it up on the resulting dialog box.
  7. Select From 'Dockerfile' when prompted.
    • If this option does not exist, make sure you are in the directory with the newly-created Dockerfile, and that you have saved the file.
  8. Select OK without installing any additional features when prompted.

This process will download and install the required files to build your environment. On a good computer and internet connection, this should not take longer than 5-10 minutes.

If successful, you should see Dev Container: Existing Dockerfile in the bottom left-hand corner of your VS Code window. Always make sure this is present before you start to write code.

Check that your container is correctly setup:

  1. Print out the CS 225 container version
    1. In the VS Code integrated terminal: echo $CS225_CONTAINER.
    2. Verify the returned value is sp25.

You should now be able to write code inside VS Code, and use the integrated VS Code terminal to execute commands in the environment.

The environment should automatically close when you close the VS Code window or application. You can then always start it again by opening your CS 225 directory in VS Code, and running the Open Folder in Container (or Reopen in Container) command again.

If you run into any issues, you can try referring to the Setup FAQ.

Congratulations, you are now finished setting up your environment for CS 225! Here are some tips for things you should do ongoing.

Saving (do this often!)

Every time you want to save the work, you will need to add, commit, and push your work to your git repository. This can always be done using the following commands on a command line while within your CS 225 directory:

git add -u
git commit -m "REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR COMMIT MESSAGE"
git push origin main

You should substitute "REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR COMMIT MESSAGE" with a short message describing what you did since the commit. This will help both you and course staff understand what you did in a specific commit.

Some examples of “good” commit messages:

Some examples of bad commit messages:

Assignment Submission

All assignments will be submitted on PrairieLearn by uploading the files. More instructions on this will follow with the assignments.

WSL (Docker alternative on Windows)

If you are unable to use the Docker-based environment for this class, an alternative, but unsupported WSL image can be used instead. If your Docker setup works, do not follow these steps.

Guide: Set up WSL on a Windows machine