Setting Up Your Class Repository

CMSC 141 • HW 0, part 4 of 6

In this section you get the repository for this assignment onto your laptop. The git-tutorial repository from the last section was only for practice; this one is real. Do this section only after the Git tutorial, since it assumes Git is installed and configured and that your GitHub account and SSH key are working.

You do not create this repository yourself. Each assignment has its own private repository that we set up for you inside the course GitHub organization, cmsc-14100-summer-2026. For this assignment, your repository is named hw0-[lastname], with your last name in place of [lastname]. Your only job here is to find it and clone it.

Step 1: Find your repository

We will add you to the cmsc-14100-summer-2026 organization and create your hw0-[lastname] repository. Two ways to reach it:

Check your email. You will get a message with a direct link to your repository (and, if needed, an invitation to join the course organization). Use the email address tied to your GitHub account, and check spam if you do not see it.
Or look on GitHub. Once you accept the organization invitation, your repository shows up under your repositories on github.com.

Open your repository's page on GitHub, click the green Code button, choose the SSH tab, and copy the address. It looks like:

git@github.com:cmsc-14100-summer-2026/hw0-[lastname].git

Use the SSH address (it starts with git@github.com:), since that is what your SSH key is for. GitHub also shows an HTTPS address such as https://github.com/cmsc-14100-summer-2026/hw0-[lastname].git; if you copied that one by mistake, switch to the SSH tab and copy again.

Step 2: Clone it

Open a terminal and move into your course directory:

$ cd ~/cmsc141

Clone your repository using the address you copied:

$ git clone git@github.com:cmsc-14100-summer-2026/hw0-[lastname].git

If asked whether to continue connecting to GitHub, answer yes. This creates a hw0-[lastname] directory holding your copy of the repository. Move into it and look around:

$ cd hw0-[lastname]
$ ls

You should see hw0.py along with the other files for this assignment.

Step 3: Pulling updates

Each assignment lives in its own repository, so you clone a fresh one each time an assignment is released. While you are working, if we push a fix or a clarification to your repository, pick it up by running this from inside the repository directory:

$ git pull

If a pull ever reports a problem, do not start deleting things. Flag it and we will sort it out together. Nothing you have done is lost.

You turn work in by committing and pushing to this same repository, which the Programming Task walks you through.

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