Installing on macOS

Follow these steps to install the development environment on your machine.

  1. Open a terminal. On macOS, press ⌘+SPACE to open the launcher, then type "Terminal" and hit return.

  2. Run the launcher. Copy and paste the following command into your terminal, then press enter to execute it:

    curl -fsSL cs193v.stanford.edu/cs193v-dev/files/install-cs193v.sh | bash

    Here's what this command does:

    • curl: Download the given URL, which here is the installer.
    • -fsSL: Don't show a download progress meter, do report errors, follow redirects, and fail if unable to download.
    • | bash: Run the downloaded installer through bash, a command interpreter.

  3. Follow the prompts. The installer will detect what additional software must be installed on your machine. It will ask for your permission before it does anything. Because the installer will put new software on your machine, it will need administrator (root) access, and thus may prompt you to enter your login password (the one you use to unlock your computer).

    The installer will place the following software on your machine, if it isn't already there:

    • podman. Podman is a tool that allows programs to run inside a "sandbox" (container) on your machine. This is an added level of security so that the coding agents you run will not able to read files on your machine other than those that you explicitly give them permission to access.
    • ssh: "Secure shell," a system allowing for secure login to remote machines. Our development environment uses this to allow you to locally test websites you create.
    • uidmap: "User ID Map," used by Podman to isolate the coding agents from the rest of your machine.

    If you do not feel comfortable installing this software on your machine, or want to learn more about what the installer does, please contact the course staff.

    At one point, the installer will ask you where on your system to install the development environment. We recommend keeping the default setting. If you are already familiar with the terminal and want to install to a new location, feel free to override the default.

    The installer may take a while to run. This is normal: it needs to download some large files onto your machine. You should see visible progress indicators the whole time.

  4. Confirm everything installed. You should see a message confirming that everything has installed correctly. To confirm everything worked, press ⌘+SPACE to open the Launcher, and type "CS193V Development Environment." You should see an icon for a program with that name. Run the program. After a few seconds of setup, you should be left at a terminal that looks like this:

   Welcome to the CS193V Development Environment!

student@cs193v-development:~/projects$

If so, congratulations! Everything is installed. Type exit and hit enter to leave the development environment.

If something goes wrong with the install, or if you can't perform one of the steps above, please check the troubleshooting page to see if it's a known issue we already have advice for. If not, contact the course staff.