Class GitHub Repository

All of the files that you may need to access for this class will be pushed to the GitHub repository amath585w2020.

Git is a version control system that you might want to use for your own work. You are encouraged to do so! There’s a list of some useful resources at the bottom of this page.

But for the purpose of this class it will primarily be used as an easy way to distribute materials, and you don’t necessarily need to know much more than what’s on this page to use it.

If you’re not familiar with Git and/or do not have it installed on your laptop, see Set Up Git on GitHub. Note that GitHub is being used to host the public class repository, but you do not need a GitHub account to clone the repository.

However, you do need Git installed for the commands below to work!

To clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/rjleveque/amath585w2020.git

This will create a directory amath585w2020.

AM585 environment variable

I suggest you define an environment variable AM585 that points to this repository, e.g. in the bash shell:

export AM585=/full/path/to/amath585w2020

You can put this command in the file ~/.bashrc if you want it to be executed every time you open a new shell.

Then you can do, e.g.

cd $AM585

to change directories to the class repository.

Below and elsewhere in these notes, $AM585 will be used to refer to the full path to the class repository.

To update

If new files have been added to the class repository, you can get them by doing:

cd $AM585
git pull

Your copy of these files

To avoid having to worry about conflicts if you change a file and the same file changes in the repository, I suggest that you never modify the files in this directory. Instead, create another directory for doing your own work, e.g.

cd
mkdir my585
export MY585=/full/path/to/my585

Then copy any files you need to this directory before working with them, e.g.

cp -r $AM585/homeworks/hw1  $MY585/

will recursively copy the directory hw1.

Then modify the files in the new hw1 directory.

Once you have done the homework and want to submit files, this will be done using the Canvas Dropbox as indicated in the homework.

Other git references

There are many tutorials and other sources of information available for Git. In particular, see: