GitHub CoCalc usage

[nikkujensen]

This may not be completely a CoCalc question, but here it is...

Can I use GitHub and CoCalc to clone and/or fork a repo to a folder in my CoCalc project? I don't want my whole CoCalc project stored/synced with GitHub. I want the GitHub repo to live in a folder in my CoCalc project.

[mforbes]

I typically clone all of my repositories into ~/.repositories and then symlink them as needed.

Note: you have to be a bit careful when using git etc. on CoCalc since all the user is the project id user. To deal with this, I forward the information when I SSH in. See #370 for details.

If you will just use a terminal from the web interface, then you can define these variables in the terminal startup file (see https://doc.cocalc.com/terminal.html#startup-files for details.)

Details about what I actually do.

What I actually do is the following:

1. Create a new project and give it a license so I have internet access.

2. Setup an entry in my ~/.ssh/config file on my laptop that looks like this:

   # ~/.ssh/config
   Host cc-project1
     User ff1cb986f...
   
   Host cc*
     HostName ssh.cocalc.com
     ForwardAgent yes
     SetEnv LC_HG_USERNAME=Your Full Name <[email protected]>
     SetEnv LC_GIT_USERNAME=Your Full Name
     SetEnv [email protected]
     SetEnv LC_EDITOR=vi
   ...

   Get the User= from your project Settings page (it is the project ID with no dashes).

3. Add my SSH keys to my Account page.

4. Login with SSH and run the following:

   ssh cc-project1
   pipx install mmf-setup
   mmf_setup cocalc

This installs a few tools I use (with pipx), then links some config files like ~/.bash_aliases which then use these LC_* variables to tell git and hg who is logged in. I have to use LC_* instead of directly setting GIT_AUTHOR_NAME etc. because SSH will not allow anything but LC_* variables to be sent.

Note: this is not an officially supported approach, but I use it daily and am reasonably happy with it.

[mforbes]

Where is $COCALC_PROJECT_ID set? I don't see it when I connect with ssh. (It is there when I start terminal from cocalc.com.) I might be mucking something up with my init files, but I don't see anything in the environment with COCALC in the name.

I think I asked this before, and I think the answer was no, but I don't recall why right now. Is there any way that some environment variables could be set (LC_HG_USERNAME for my purposes) automatically when specific users open a new terminal from cocalc.com? Something like the project-specific environment variables, but specified per user? Of course, these would not work when connecting with ssh. I think you mentioned possibly automatically generating user-specific terminals, but this misses (I think) the cases of people running commands in the Terminal window, or from notebooks, etc.

[mforbes]

One more question: It seems that the startup files execute, then the terminal is cleared. Is there a way for the output of the startup file to be preserved so it is visible after it finishes executing?

[haraldschilly]

when specific users open a new terminal

not for new terminals, but existing ones: the 🚀 icon creates a startup file associated with that terminal (and only the specific frame) https://doc.cocalc.com/terminal.html#startup-files

[haraldschilly]

ok, you know about startup files, about clearing them, I don't know. If I press Ctrl-D an output of echo ... shows up, but the first time around it is cleared. I'm guessing this could be changed.

[mforbes]

@haraldschilly I opened an issue #6551 with my use case. (Should I delete my conversation here about startup files to keep this thread cleaner and on-topic?)

[williamstein]

I want the GitHub repo to live in a folder in my CoCalc project.

I have a very different understanding of this question than @mforbes. I think he's answering a pretty complicated question about how to host a git repo on CoCalc itself. I suspect you're just asking about taking a repo from GitHub and storing a copy of that repo in CoCalc, then pushing/pull to/from GitHub.

To do that, just open a terminal via +New --> Terminal and use 100% the standard git commands. There's nothing special at all about CoCalc compared to using Git (and GitHub) from any other Linux server, except be sure to setup your .gitconfig file with your email address (use git config ...).

For example:

[mforbes]

I am not really concerned with hosting the repo on CoCalc (though it is useful in some cases). My response is complicated because our projects have many users (a research group of students) who all commit, and we want to keep track of who commits: if there is only one user, then just adding the appropriate information with git config ... is the way to go.

[nikkujensen]

Thank you @williamstein for your comment. This answers my inquiry

[williamstein]

I just added a chatgpt integration to the cocalc landing page, with some behind the scenes system prompting (and the chatgpt api). Check out how it does on your question: