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Use of the turnin program


turnin assignment_name@hy < dir >| < files > [ < dir > | < files > ]
- assignment_name is the name of the directory containing the assignments in the course account (eg. askhsh1, pgm1, lab3, hw2, etc).
- hy is the directory name (eg. hy123).
- < dir >| < files > [ < dir > | < files > ] is the list of directories and/or files to submit.

If the system responds with the message "Command not found", type the full path: /usr/bin/turnin


Assuming that:

In the course account "hy123", the assignment directory is named "exercise1" (full path ~hy123/SUBMIT/exercise1)

In the student "sirakis"' account, the directory ask3 contains the files to submit (full path ~sirakis/lessons/hy123/ask1

The command to submit the assignment by the home directory will be:

turnin exercise1@hy123 lessons/hy123/ask1

The program allows the submit of directories (one or more), files, and a mixture of files and directories. For the sake of simplicity, it is recommended the submission of a single directory. Only relative paths are allowed. The path cannot start with a slash ("/") or contain ".." (parent directory).

The program compresses the student  assigment in a file named user.tar.Z (where user is the login name of the user running the turnin program). The resulting file is then placed in the assignment directory (owner = course account, permissions = 600). If permitted by the instructor, the ls command will show the contents of the directory.

If multiple submits are allowed, each previous version is automatically renamed as submit user-N.tar.Z, where increasing values of N represent newer versions of the file. The default value is to allow for 10 submits, but this number can be changed by the instructor (see below, LIMITS).

WARNING: This program accepts submit directories and / or files for submission files BUT NO renamed binary / compressed / gzipped. The program refuses to recognize and submit compressed files. The submission of such an assignment will result in the assignment of the remaining files except the compressed / binary ones.


In the account home directory, create a subdirectory named TURNIN with permissions 755 (700 if the teacher doesn't allow directory listing). For each assignment, create a subdirectory TURNIN/assignment_name (with permissions 755 or 700). The name given to this directory is arbitrary, but must be known to the students.

Several files are created in this directory, either automatically, or later by the teacher. They control various aspects of the program:

  • README - printed at the beginning of the submit process. It can provide additional instructions or reminders.
  • LOCK - disables submits in this directory. It's an empty file (touch).
  • LOGFILE - lists submits. Automatically generated by the program submit.
  • LIMITS - contains lines with words and default values. The default values are:

         maxfiles 1000
         maxkbytes 1000
         maxsubmits 10
         binary 0

These values determine: the maximum number of files in the assignment, the maximum size of the assignment, how many submits are allowed for each assignment. "binary" is a boolean value that determines whether authorized binary files can be submitted.

CAUTION: If binary files are allowed, the submitted file must be unpacked only from the account owner, and then only if there are no critical information that can be damaged by any malicious binaries. Also, students should be informed if the teacher allows binary / compressed files. Files with "#" at the beginning of the name represent invalid submits.