Working on the teach.cs Server

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Your teach.cs Account

Everyone registered in this course should have access to teach.cs account and teach.cs server. If you have not already done so, please get an account following the instructions.

SSH and VSCode Setup

You can connect to teach.cs servers using SSH (secure shell) following these instructions.

VSCode provides an easy integration with SSH. You can follow the steps here to set up your VSCode to connect to teach.cs server. These steps mostly follow the official document.

  1. Install VSCode here if you haven’t done so.
  2. Install a supported open-ssh client following the instructions according to your system. After the installation, make sure that typing ssh in your terminal gives the following output: 
    usage: ssh [-46AaCfGgKkMNnqsTtVvXxYy] [-B bind_interface]
           [-b bind_address] [-c cipher_spec] [-D [bind_address:]port]
           [-E log_file] [-e escape_char] [-F configfile] [-I pkcs11]
           [-i identity_file] [-J [user@]host[:port]] [-L address]
           [-l login_name] [-m mac_spec] [-O ctl_cmd] [-o option] [-p port]
           [-Q query_option] [-R address] [-S ctl_path] [-W host:port]
           [-w local_tun[:remote_tun]] destination [command]
    If not, restart your computer and try again.
  3. Install the Remote-SSH extension for VSCode.
  4. Open Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or clicking on the top search bar and type in >), select Remote-SSH: Connect to Host...
  5. In the new prompt, type in username@teach.cs.utoronto.ca. Press enter, type in your password and press enter again.
  6. You might need to select the platform type for remote. Choose Linux.
  7. Once you are connected, you can open any folder by clicking on Open Folder on the left panel, See Figure 1 for an example layout. The default folder is your root folder. You can select your A1 folder to get started. image
    Figure 1: VSCode Initial Layout.
  8. You can open the terminal by following the introduction.

How to Connect to a Remote Terminal Using SSH

SSH (Secure Shell) is a protocol used to securely connect to a remote terminal over a network. It encrypts the connection to protect data in transit.

Here’s an introduction on how to connect to a remote terminal using SSH:

Advanced Setup

Here are instructions to set up the .ssh/config file, generate an SSH key, and add the SSH key to the authorized_keys on a remote server. These steps will help you configure SSH for easy and secure access to remote servers — you will no longer need to enter your password every time you try to connect.

  1. Set Up .ssh/config File:
    • Create or edit the .ssh/config file in your home directory: 
      nano ~/.ssh/config
    • Add configuration details for your remote hosts: 
      Host wolf
    HostName teach.cs.toronto.edu
    User your_username
    • Now, you can connect to the cluster with this simplified command: 
      ssh wolf
  2. Generate an SSH Key Pair:
    • Follow GitHub’s instructions to generate a new SSH key pair:
      GitHub SSH Key Generation Guide.
    • After generating the key, you will have a public key (id_ed25519.pub) and a private key (id_ed25519).
  3. Copy the Public Key to the Remote Server’s authorized_keys:
    • Use ssh-copy-id to add your public key to the authorized_keys file on the remote server: 
      ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub your_username@teach.cs.toronto.edu
    • Alternatively, manually copy the contents of your public key to the remote server:
      • Display your public key with: 
        cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
      • On the remote server, append this key to the authorized_keys file: 
        echo "your-public-key" >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
      • Ensure correct permissions: 
        chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
  4. Set Permissions for the .ssh/config File:
    • To ensure security, set the correct permissions for your .ssh/config: 
      chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config

Moving Files to teach.cs with scp

SCP (Secure Copy Protocol) is a command-line utility for securely transferring files between local and remote machines using SSH (Secure Shell).

Here’s an introduction on how to use scp to move files to a remote directory:

  1. Basic Syntax:
    The basic syntax for transferring files to a remote server is: 
    scp [options] source_file your_username@teach.cs.toronto.edu:remote_directory
  2. Example Command:
    To copy a file named example.txt to a remote directory ~/csc485/a1 on teach.cs.toronto.edu, use: 
    scp example.txt your_username@teach.cs.toronto.edu:~/csc485/a1
  3. Copying Directories:
    Use the -r option to recursively copy directories: 
    scp -r a1_starter_codes your_username@teach.cs.toronto.edu:~/csc485/a1

Using GPUs

The Teaching Labs have a small computing cluster equipped with GPU. See these instructions on how to use them.