Using GitPod

If you don’t yet have access to a laptop on which you can install VirtualBox and Vagrant, then for many purposes, you can also use a cloud-based development VM provided by GitPod.

(Note that if you use GitPod, you will not be able to alter the kernel parameters of the running kernel. Altering the kernel parameters is required if you want to complete the “extension tasks” for the week 4 lab, on buffer overflows, and for the week 8 lab, on race conditions.)

You should complete the following steps:

1. You’ll need to have a GitHub account for this, so if you don’t have one already, visit https://github.com/ and create one.

2. Log into your GitHub account. Once that’s done, paste the following URL into your browser:

     https://gitpod.io/#https://github.com/cits3007/ubuntu-gitpod

   You’ll be prompted to use GitHub to access GitPod:

   

3. Click “Continue with GitHub”.

   GitPod will start a cloud-based virtual machine in which the standard CITS3007 environment is available, and the latest version of Visual Studio Code (VS Code) editor is running:

   

   Initially, VS Code will start with the folder /workspace/ubuntu-gitpod open, which contains code downloaded from https://github.com/cits3007/ubuntu-gitpod. However, you can easily create and open new folders if desired.

Note that when using GitPod, it’s up to you to ensure a copy of your code is saved in some permanent location – when the virtual machine shuts down, any files you created or altered will be lost, if they haven’t been saved elsewhere.