Software to Install or Configure (and/or update as needed)

Instructions on installing these follow below.

  • The latest version of git
  • Java 21
  • Maven 3.9.9
  • nvm (node version manager)
  • Current LTS version of Node available through nvm (currently node v20.17.0, and npm v10.8.2)

When you are finished, check https://ucsb-cs156.github.io/f24/info/install_checklist.html to double check that you completed every step successfully.

Recommmended for Everyone

  1. Slack Client

    Be sure you have a slack client installed on your devices. I strongly encourage you to have Slack installed on your phone as well so that you can stay in touch with your team and news about the course, though that’s a personal decision.

  2. Updated Zoom Client

    Be sure that you have the latest version of the Zoom client. Older versions may not have some of the features we’ll need for this course.

    If you click on “About Zoom” inside zoom, you want a version that is 6.2.3 or later.

    Download it here: https://zoom.us/download

  3. VSCode Text Editor for your local computer

    Download it here: https://code.visualstudio.com/download

    While vim and emacs are perfectly fine for the work you may have done in CS16/24/32, when it comes to professional level application development, it’s time to graduate to some more professional tools.

    We have found that VSCode (a free download for Windows/Mac/Linux) is in the sweet spot between too few features, and too complicated.

    If you haven’t worked with it before, we suggest you download it and start getting used to it.

    What it does for you:

    • Autocompletion
    • Syntax highlighting and checking
    • Automatic import detection
    • Ability to see an entire directory tree at once
    • Search and replace across multiple files
    • and much much more…

    Note: If you have already tried using VSCode and genuinely feel like you are more of a pro at vim, nano, neovim, or other project/code/text editors, feel free to use whatever is convenient for you. We are suggesting VSCode for ease of all-round use.

    Some additional hints for using VSCode:

    1. Note that you might need to install VSCode separately under Windows and the WSL partition.
    2. Install the command line command so that at the Mac or WSL command line you can type code . at the command line and it will open VSCode in that directory.
      • Access the VS Code Command Palette via either shift + Command + P (Mac) or Ctrl + Shift + P (Windows/Linux).

      • Type shell and two commands should pop up:

        image

        Choose Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH and follow the prompts.

    3. We strongly encouage you to turn on autosave. If you need to get back to your original code, you can do that using git commands, so there’s no real downside, and a lot of time saved when you don’t waste time wondering why your change didn’t work, and realize it’s because you forgot to save your changes. Here’s how:
      • Look under the file menu for an option called Autosave. It will either have a check beside it or not.
      • If it doesn’t, select it, and the check should appear. Now you are autosaving.
    4. When using VSCode with a github project, get in the habit of opening VSCode in the directory where the repo lives. This is important because when you do it this way, VSCode can integrate with the structure of a git directory, as well as the structure of a Maven or React project, and give you additional hints and support that are extraordinarily helpful.

  4. Install Java 21, Maven, and nvm on your local system.

    You really do need Java 21, specifically, and NOT Java 8, Java 11, Java 17, or a preview version of 22, 23, or higher. It won’t matter for the "Hello World" program in the first week, but when we move on to complex Java applications involving third-party libraries, it will definitely matter.

Recommmended for Windows Users

Install Windows Subsystem for Linux.

It turns out that almost everything in terms of installing software (Java, Maven, Node, etc.) is easier under Linux than under native Windows. Therefore we strongly suggest that if you have a Windows environment, you install the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and then follow the instructions under Linux/WSL.

If you are unable to install WSL because of limitations on your machine, please reach out to the course staff via Slack using the #help-windows channel on Slack. In that case, we will try to find an alternative for you.

Recommended for Ubuntu Linux / WSL Users

Instructions for installing Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), as well as environment setup instructions for Ubuntu systems, is available here: https://ucsb-cs156.github.io/topics/windows_wsl/

Native Ubuntu users (those not using Ubuntu through WSL) can skip the Windows-specific setup and go directly to Install / Update Git on WSL and follow all instructions from there on.

The following programs will be installed in the above guide:

  • The latest version of git
  • Java 21
  • Maven 3.9.9
  • nvm (latest stable version)
  • Current LTS version of Node installed via nvm install --lts; nvm use --lts (currently node v20.17.0, and npm v10.8.2)

If you’re using a Linux distribution that is not Ubuntu (or a similar Debian-based distribution with access to apt), the commands listed in the setup guide linked above may not work. The staff cannot provide support on finding equivalent commands for your desired distribution, but community resources such as Stack Overflow can help here.

Recommmended for MacOS Users

If you have questions about this section, please ask on the #help-macos channel on the Slack

  1. MacOS version: If you have a MacOS version that is really old (e.g. 12.x), you should consider upgrading to a later version.

    I know for sure that 12.x results in this command later on when you try to install Java 21, so folks on version 12.x will need to upgrade. (Folks with later versions might be able to delay upgrading. But if you get a message like this, then you know what you need to do.)

    Warning: You are using macOS 12.
We (and Apple) do not provide support for this old version.
It is expected behaviour that some formulae will fail to build in this old version.
...

  2. Command Line Tools XCode for MacOS, including git

    On MacOS, git typically gets installed as part of the “Command Line XCode Tools” the first time you ask to use it. To be sure that git is installed, try typing:

    git --version

    If it shows something like this you are good (version number may vary, and is not important as far as we know):

    git version 2.24.3 (Apple Git-128)

    Otherwise, you might get a message that you need to install the XCode Command Line Tools, i.e. something like this:

    image

    In that case, please just follow the instructions given in the message. Don’t worry if it says it will take 72 hours for the install; if you start it and let it run for a minute or two, that estimate should come down to something reasonable quickly, but it still make take 10-15 minutes.

    When you are done, you should be able to type git --version at a command prompt and see something like:

    git version 2.24.3 (Apple Git-128)

  3. Brew (package manager)

    For MacOS, we’ll be installing several packages for Java and JavaScript (node) development.
    In many cases, installing those is easier if you first install the brew package manager.

    To see if brew is already installed, type brew update at the command line. If it is already installed, this will update your installation.

    If you see the following, that it isn’t installed, so visit https://brew.sh/ and follow the instructions to install it.

    zsh: command not found: brew

    When the command to install brew finishes, you are not finished so keep that terminal window open and do the next part immediately.

    There will be some commands at the end of the output; those will look something like this (but they may not look exactly like this, since they will be tailored to your OS version and machine architecture. Copy from your terminal window, not this web page.)

    ==> Next steps:
- Run these commands in your terminal to add Homebrew to your PATH:
 echo >> /Users/pconrad/.zprofile
 echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"' >> /Users/pconrad/.zprofile
 eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

    It is important to run these command to complete the brew installation.

  4. Install XCode. We do not use XCode in this course, but we need it to install Java21 using brew.

  5. Install Java 21 with brew: first part

    To install Java with homebrew, use:

    brew update
brew install openjdk@21

    Note that if you skipped the Xcode installation step above, you may find get an error like this (some parts removed); in that case, go back to the XCode installation step.

    openjdk@21: A full installation of Xcode.app is required to compile
this software. Installing just the Command Line Tools is not sufficient.

Xcode can be installed from the App Store.
Error: openjdk@21: An unsatisfied requirement failed this build.

    When the command finishes, you are not finished. Keep that terminal window open and do the next part immediately.

  6. Install Java 21 with brew: important second part

    After this command finishes executing, there will be some lines printed on the terminal similar to, but not necessarily identical to these:

    For the system Java wrappers to find this JDK, symlink it with
sudo ln -sfn /opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@21/libexec/openjdk.jdk /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk-21.jdk

openjdk@21 is keg-only, which means it was not symlinked into /opt/homebrew,
because this is an alternate version of another formula.

If you need to have openjdk@21 first in your PATH, run:
echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@21/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

For compilers to find openjdk@21 you may need to set:
export CPPFLAGS="-I/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@21/include"

    You will need to find these lines in the text outputted by brew install openjdk@21 and run it in the terminal. It should be near the end of the output.

    Make sure you copy the commands from your terminal output, and not from this web page, since they may be customized to your Mac OS version, the architecture of your machine, etc.

    • Note that the command that starts with sudo ln -sfn ... only has to be done once.
    • The echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@21/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc command puts a line in your .zshrc startup file. That will not take effect unless/until you start a new terminal window.
    • The line export CPPFLAGS="-I/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@21/include" is also one that would go in your .zshrc file.

    Once you’ve done these, open a new terminal window so that the ~/.zshrc file is read from again before you test whether the Java 21 compiler was installed properly, with this command:

    java -version

    If it worked, you should see something like this:

    pconrad@Phillips-MacBook-Air ~ % java --version
openjdk 21.0.4 2024-07-16
OpenJDK Runtime Environment Homebrew (build 21.0.4)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM Homebrew (build 21.0.4, mixed mode, sharing)
pconrad@Phillips-MacBook-Air ~ %

  7. Maven

    After installing Java 21, you can use brew to install Maven:

    brew update
brew install maven

    Or if you already have Maven installed, do this to upgrade your version to the latest one:

    brew update
brew upgrade maven

    Then to check that it is installed, do:

    mvn --version

    Be sure that you have Maven version 3.9 or higher, as Java 21 requires this version to work.

    When you type mvn --version if you are getting a version of Java other than Java 21, the fix is described in this article but that article is a little out of date, so here’s the updated instructions:

    For example, you do NOT want to see this:

    pconrad@Phillips-MacBook-Air ~ % mvn --version
Apache Maven 3.9.9 (8e8579a9e76f7d015ee5ec7bfcdc97d260186937)
Maven home: /opt/homebrew/Cellar/maven/3.9.9/libexec
Java version: 23, vendor: Homebrew, runtime: /opt/homebrew/Cellar/openjdk/23/libexec/openjdk.jdk/Contents/Home
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8
OS name: "mac os x", version: "14.4.1", arch: "aarch64", family: "mac"
pconrad@Phillips-MacBook-Air ~ %

    That shows the correct Maven version (3.9.9) but the wrong Java version (23).

    To update the maven configuration, file, edit this file; note that the version number may be different by the time you are reading these instructions:

    vim `which mvn`

    The which mvn part determines the name of the script or binary that the mvn command brings up, and vim opens that file for editing.

    In that file, change the line that starts with JAVA_HOME= to this:

    JAVA_HOME="${JAVA_HOME:-$(/usr/libexec/java_home 21)}" exec "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/maven/3.9.9/libexec/bin/mvn" "$@"

    Or if you find that the above does not work after typing mvn --version then try:

    JAVA_HOME="${JAVA_HOME:-/usr/local/opt/openjdk@21/libexec/openjdk.jdk/Contents/Home}" exec "/usr/local/Cellar/maven/3.9.9/libexec/bin/mvn" "$@"

    For Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3), try replacing the first openjdk with openjdk@21, like this:

    JAVA_HOME="${JAVA_HOME:-/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@21/libexec/openjdk.jdk/Contents/Home}" exec "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/maven/3.9.9/libexec/bin/mvn" "$@"

    Again, you may need to adjust the version number 3.9.9 to whatever your version of Maven is. After doing this, if you type mvn --version it should show Java 21, like this:

    pconrad@Phillips-MacBook-Air ~ % mvn --version
Apache Maven 3.9.9 (8e8579a9e76f7d015ee5ec7bfcdc97d260186937)
Maven home: /opt/homebrew/Cellar/maven/3.9.9/libexec
Java version: 21.0.4, vendor: Homebrew, runtime: /opt/homebrew/Cellar/openjdk@21/21.0.4/libexec/openjdk.jdk/Contents/Home
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8
OS name: "mac os x", version: "14.4.1", arch: "aarch64", family: "mac"
pconrad@Phillips-MacBook-Air ~ %

  8. nvm, Node, and npm

    Even if you already have node and npm installed on your computer, you should install Node Version Manager (nvm). The instructions for installing this are the same as those for Linux and WSL users, so please follow the instructions listed there.

    Install nvm and Node on WSL

    Update npm on WSL

Optional (for everyone)

  1. UCSB VPN Client (Pulse Secure)

    What it does:

    • Reroutes all your network traffic through the UCSB network, so that it appears that your machine is directly connected to the UCSB Campus network

    What it allows you to do:

    • Access the textbooks for the course online without having to buy them.
    • Mount your CSIL home directory as a shared network drive using Samba
    • Graphically remote into CSIL

    Note: In order to use Pulse Secure, you need to setup DUO (a two factor authentication app). Here is a link for the instructions on how to set it up: https://www.it.ucsb.edu/getting-started-mfa-duo/enroll-push-notification

    Where to get Pulse Secure: https://www.it.ucsb.edu/pulse-secure-campus-vpn/get-connected-vpn

  2. Samba Access to your CSIL home directory

    What it does:

    • Mounts your CSIL home directory “as if” it were connected directly to your computer.

    What it allows you to do:

    • Click on files on CSIL and open them in software on your own machine (e.g. an editor such as Sublime Text, VSCode, or a web browser.)

    Where to get it:

    • You don’t have to download anything (though you do need the UCSB VPN Client first)

    • Instead, follow the instructions here:

      Platform Text Instructions YouTube Video Instructions
      MacOS Text Video
      Windows Text Video
      Linux (ask staff)