git-submit50

git-submit50 is a shell script that can be used to submit CS50 problems instead of the official Python utility. This script automates the manual submission process through Git, because the official utility makes certain assumptions about its environment which may not always hold (specifically, it assumes that a siging key would be defined in global scope while it is valid to define it in repository scope). Writing this script automates the process described here (this utility’s "specification") which does not make the same assumptions. It also uses Git as-is, without any direct manipulation of the Git repository or use of third-party libraries; this is more robust because a library may fall behind on recent updates to Git or behave differently, especially in edge cases.

Environment

The utility makes a number of assumptions, which may become TODO items so that it is more versatile:

• /usr/bin/env is a conformant implementation of the env utility as described in POSIX.1-2017, and the first executable sh on your system’s PATH is a conformant implementation of the sh utility as described in POSIX.1-2017, and the version of Git installed on your system is 2.49.0.

• You are invoking the utility from within a directory containing the files to be submitted.

• The directory containing the files to be submitted is a child of a Git repository’s root directory.

• The Git branch from which the utility starts operation contains the version of the submission files which are desired to be submitted. If that is not the case, switch to the branch containing said version before running the utility.

• The Git branch from which the utility starts operation is not a detached HEAD. You can refer the DETACHED HEAD section of the git-checkout manpage (or view it offline by passing git help checkout to your shell) to learn what that means.

Usage

If the script is placed somewhere such that Git can find git-submit50, the usage is as follows:

git submit50 <slug>

If that is not the case, replace git submit50 with a fully qualified path to the script file.

Contributing

You can find known issues in the Issues tab. Please make sure to join the conversation on these issues so that everyone knows how you’re going about resolving it before submitting a pull request related to it. Maintainers will reject any contributions not following process and will point the contributor here. Please make sure to also look for areas of improvement in the comments on the script, so that you may open issues on them and describe how you would like to contribute improvements.

Aside from known issues and marginal improvements, there seem to be two ways to go forward:

• Optimize the script for terseness and readability. There may be better ways available in future versions of Git to perform the workflow this script automates, and so it is advisable that patches be contributed in accordance with the latest version’s features. If that causes issues in readability, however, then readability may sometimes be prioritized.

• Optimize the script for stability and effeciency. It may be possible to do what the script currently does with plumbing commands in a way that is more effecient. In other words, there may exist a way such that the number of operations performed on the git repository is fewer while the required behavior is still produced. This will help performance, and using plumbing commands likely means a program that requires fewer modifications over time. A few plumbing commands are already in use because there are no porcelain equivalents.

It has not yet been decided which of these two directions shall be followed; please contribute to the decision-making process so that this section may be revised.