The UMBC submit Utility


What is the UMBC submit Utility?

UMBC's submission system, provides an electronic means for students to submit files electronically, from within a GL accounts. There are several submit commands all of which are executed via a UNIX shell.


submit - Submit Files

The "submit" command is used to copy the specified file(s) from the students account into the instructors submission directory. There are several items that need to be passed into submit...

submit Course Project Files(s)

Course is the class that you are submitting files for, Project is the current project that you are submitting files for, and File(s) is the (or a list of space separated) file(s) that you wish to hand in. Note: your instructor should always give you the names of both the course and the project that you should be submitting to.

When we run the submit command, look and make sure that submit says that the files were submitted okay...

linux3 [5]# submit cs291u proj1 my_file.c
Submitting my_file.c...OK
linux3 [6]#

An attempt to submit is not a submission, and many instructors will not take "well I typed submit, I don't know why the files aren't there" as an excuse.


A Word on Resubmitting Files

Please take note that you can resubmit files, and the submit command will prompt you if you wish to overwrite the files that you have previously submitted...

linux3 [6]# submit cs291u proj1 my_file.c
It seems you have already submitted a file named my_file.c.
Do you wish to overwrite? (y/n):
y
Submitting my_file.c...OK
linux3 [7]#

I suggest, as a general rule of thumb, to always submit something by the project due date. I have seen on many instances people want to take an extra day to work on the project (usually taking some sort of late penalty). As it may turn out he/she may not make any additional progress on the project, and turn around and hand in exactly what they had the day before, but now with a late penalty.

Take advantage of the fact that you can submit something and then overwrite that data later if you make more progress on the project.


submitls - List the Files That Are Submitted

You should upon submittal of a project confirm to yourself that you were able to successfully submit the files and that they are there in the instructors directory. This is done via the "submitls" command, which takes the course name and the project name as its arguments...

submitls course project

An example submitls looks like a long directory listing ("ls -l"). This long listing also shows you the exact time that your project was submitted, in case there was any doubt...

linux3 [11]# submitls cs291u proj1
total 5
drwx------    2 dhood2   general      2048 Jan 18 18:27 .
drwxr-xr-x   14 dhood2   general      2048 Jan 16 12:24 ..
-rw-r--r--    1 dhood2   general        15 Jan 18 18:33 my_file.c
linux3 [12]#

submitls - List the Files That Are Submitted

You should upon submittal of a project confirm to yourself that you were able to successfully submit the files and that they are there in the instructors directory. This is done via the "submitls" command, which takes the course name and the project name as its arguments...

submitls course project

An example submitls looks like a long directory listing ("ls -l"). This long listing also shows you the exact time that your project was submitted, in case there was any doubt...

linux3 [11]# submitls cs291u proj1
total 5
drwx------    2 dhood2   general      2048 Jan 18 18:27 .
drwxr-xr-x   14 dhood2   general      2048 Jan 16 12:24 ..
-rw-r--r--    1 dhood2   general        15 Jan 18 18:33 my_file.c
linux3 [12]#

submitproj - What Projects Can I Submit Files For

If you accidently forget what the project name was that you were supposed to submit under, you can check and see what projects the instructor has created submittal directories for with the "submitproj" command. It takes the course name as it's sole argument...

submitproj course

Here is an example from my Winter 2003 CMSC291U course...

linux3 [20]# submitproj cs291u
The following projects are defined for dhood2's cs291u class:
proj0           Testing Submit
proj1           Project 1
proj2           Project 2
proj3           Project 3
proj4           Project 4
proj5           Project 5
proj6           Project 6
final           Final
linux3 [21]#

Daniel J. Hood
Last modified: Sat Jan 18 19:08:20 EST 2003