While doing a unit you may be asked to submit the answers to some assignments electronically. There are two methods used by computer science units at UNE.
The first method is to use a WWW page to submit a number of files using your WWW browser. Not all units will support this method as it does not support uploading of directories of files. If available, the URL to do this should be on your unit homepage. You will need to use your turing username and password to authenticate your assignment submission.
The second method requires you to transfer your files to turing (via ftp) and then use the submit program, on turing, to send your files to the unit markers. The advantage of this method is that it is easy to submit entire directory structures of files. This is described in detail in the following sections.
This procedure requires that you will have a set of files you wish to submit. These should be located in your current working directory on a UNE Unix system. Typically there will be one or more files that contain source code for a program you have written, a data file for the program and a document describing the solutions to the assignment. You may also be asked to submit a 'script' that shows your program in action.
These are the things you need to know:
Following are the steps required to submit an assignment. Included are
some sample screens and explanations of various options. Sample input and
the results are shown in typewriter style font.
Login to the computer that you must submit your assignment from. This will be most likely be turing. Some units may specify a different computer. If you don't know which computer to use, consult your lecturer or tutor.
Change to the directory that contains the files you wish to submit and type submit. You will then be prompted for your unit name.
turing % submit Unit name for submission: comp280
If you can't remember what your unit name is, type a `?'. You will then be shown a list of possible unit names. You will then be asked to restart the submit program.
After typing your unit name, you will be presented with a list of assignment names. To the right of each assignment name is either the word `on' or `off'. This signifies whether you can submit files for that particular assignment at this time.
If the assignment you want to submit is `off' then either you are trying to submit too early or you are trying to submit past the due date. If it is past the due date, you will have to make arrangements with your lecturer to submit by other means.
Current assignments for comp280: assignment1 off assignment2 on assignment3 off Assignment: assignment2
Type in the assignment name. If you misspell it, you will be asked to type it again.
After you type the assignment name, you will see the following menu.
Assignment Submission Procedure
Unit : comp280
Assignment: assignment2
1 Record (script) your assignment at work and add to submission list
2 Add files to submission list
3 Send final submission (Overwrites previous submission)
4 View previous submission
5 Help
6 Quit
Enter selection:
Make a selection by entering a number from 1 to 6 followed by the return key. Options 1 to 4 are explained below. Option 5 will give you a brief summary of what each option will do. Option 6 will exit from the menu and put you back at the shell prompt. If you use option 6 to exit and you have not yet used option 3 to make a submission, you will be warned and asked to confirm your exit.
If you are required to submit a `script' of your assignment at work you
will need to select option 1. When you select this option you will be
put back to your shell prompt. Everything you type and the output of
any programs you run will be recorded in a `script' file. Once you have
finished demonstrating your program, type the exit command.
You will then be returned to the main menu.
Note that you should not run any `full screen' programs like less, more, vi, pico, pine or elm while you are using script. These programs do not record well and leave a lot of control characters in the `script'.
The script file will be sent with your final submission when you select option 3 of the main menu.
If you make a mistake while making the script file, type exit to return to the menu and select option 1 again. The new script will overwrite your previous version.
Following is a sample session of creating a script. The session demonstrates the successful compilation and running of a simple program that adds and multiplies two numbers. This is an example only, please consult your tutor to find out what details you must submit in your script.
Assignment Submission Procedure
Unit : comp280
Assignment: assignment2
1 Record (script) your assignment at work and add to submission list
2 Add files to submission list
3 Send final submission (Overwrites previous submission)
4 View previous submission
5 Help
6 Quit
Enter selection: 1
To finish recording and return to submit menu, type exit
Script started, file is /tmp/s6807script
turing % ls
add.cc add.doc
turing % g++ add.cc
turing % a.out
1st number: 23
2nd number: 48
sum = 71, product = 1104
turing % exit
exit
Script done, file is /tmp/s6807script
[Press return to continue]
You will usually be required to submit some files as part of your assignment. These files will typically consist of program source code, program data files, program documentation, written explanations and answers.
To submit these files, option 2 of the main menu is used. Here is a sample session.
Assignment Submission Procedure
Unit : comp280
Assignment: assignment2
1 Record (script) your assignment at work and add to submission list
2 Add files to submission list
3 Send final submission (Overwrites previous submission)
4 View previous submission
5 Help
6 Quit
Enter selection: 2
Type in the names of any files to be included as part of your submission.
Finish with a blank line.
If you name a binary file you will be asked for confirmation. The files
that you submit may be printed on a printer and binary files do not
print very well. You should only submit binary files if your lecturer
has specifically requested that you do so.
Absolute pathnames (filenames beginning with a '/' character) will not
be accepted.
File to submit: add.cc
File to submit: add.doc
File to submit:
You are ready to submit the following files:
add.cc
add.doc
[Press return to continue]
As the help message says, you enter file names, one per line. When you have finished, you enter a blank line. Each file is checked to make sure it is not a special file, binary file or directory. If the file is a binary file or a directory, you will be asked to confirm that you want to send this file or directory. If you send a directory, you send the entire contents of the directory, including sub-directories. This is not usually what you want to do.
Option 3 of the main menu is used to send the files you named from option 2 and the script you made from option 1, to the unit marker. If more than one person marks your unit, you will asked which tutorial group you wish to submit your files to. If this is the case, the names of the tutorial groups will be shown to you. You must choose one. They will either be the name of your tutor or the time of your tutorial. If you are an external student, the name of your tutorial group may be something like `ext'.
Following is a sample session. If your unit is not broken up into tutorial groups, you will not be asked the question about tutorial groups.
Assignment Submission Procedure
Unit : comp280
Assignment: assignment2
1 Record (script) your assignment at work and add to submission list
2 Add files to submission list
3 Send final submission (Overwrites previous submission)
4 View previous submission
5 Help
6 Quit
Enter selection: 3
The tutorial groups of comp280 are:
tue
wed
ext
Enter your tutorial group: tue
rw-r----- 501/0 759 Dec 1 14:43 1997 submit.971201
rw------- 501/0 202 Dec 1 11:54 1997 add.cc
rw------- 501/0 1760 Dec 1 12:26 1997 add.doc
Compressing submitted files... please wait
Your files have been submitted to comp280, assignment2 for grading.
A record of this session has been left in submit.971201
Submission Complete
[Press return to continue]
After you enter your tutorial group (if required), the files that you are submitting are listed. You are also informed about a file left in your directory that records what you did during this session with the submit program. You may delete this file or keep it for your own records.
You can get a list of files that you have submitted by using option 4 of the main menu. If the unit is broken up into tutorial groups, you will be asked for your group.
Assignment Submission Procedure
Unit : comp280
Assignment: assignment2
1 Record (script) your assignment at work and add to submission list
2 Add files to submission list
3 Send final submission (Overwrites previous submission)
4 View previous submission
5 Help
6 Quit
Enter selection: 4
Checking for existing submission...
The tutorial groups of comp280 are:
tue
wed
ext
Enter your tutorial group: tue
rw-r----- 501/0 759 Dec 1 14:43 1997 submit.971201
rw------- 501/0 202 Dec 1 11:54 1997 add.cc
rw------- 501/0 1760 Dec 1 12:26 1997 add.doc
[Press return to continue]
If you decide you have made a mistake, just go though the whole submit procedure again. The new submission will overwrite your previous one, but remember, you must add all the files and the script over again.
Whenever you submit an assignment, a file called
submit.yymmdd21 is created in
your directory. This file contains all the details, including the
script and the names of the files, of your submission. You can keep
this for your records or delete it if you don't want it.
While the submit program is running, it creates a file called /tmp/submit.lock.username where username is your username. If your submit session is terminated for some reason (your connection fails), you may get the message:
ERROR: You can only run one submit at a time
when you try to start submit. If this is the case, you can simply delete the /tmp/submit.lock.username file to allow submit to restart. Note that you will also get this error message if you try to start submit a second time. This can happen, for example, if are making a script from within submit and then try to run submit again.