The git remote user build requires code on both the client and server, consisting of:

• grub_client: a script to drive a git remote user build from your desktop.
• grub_server: a script driven by GRUB_client on the target server.
• grub_server.bash: a helper script driven by GRUB_server on the target server.
• tasks.json: a sample tasks.json that you can optionally use for a VSCode repository build task.
• grub_variables.json: a sample set of environment variables that you can optionally set up for a VSCode repository build task.

You need to install GRUB on the client(s) and server(s) that you want to do remote builds with. For example:

• you have a Mac desktop and want to perform a remote build to your personal userid on z/OS
• your Mac desktop root tools directory is $HOME/Documents/tools
• your z/OS userid root tools directory is $HOME/tools

On your Mac:

• cd $HOME/Documents/tools
• git clone git@github.com:MikeFultonDev/grub.git
• Run $HOME/Documents/tools/bin/grub_client with no parameters to see the syntax of grub_client

On your Mac, set up VSCode default build (Optional):

• Launch VSCode
• If you want to use GRUB on multiple repositories, you can set up a User task with Cmd-Shift-P, then choose Open User Tasks to create a user level task. Copy the sample tasks.json into the tasks.json file that is available. across all folders and workspaces.
• If you only want to run GRUB on one repository:
  • Copy the sample tasks.json into the .vscode directory of your repository. You may need to create the .vscode directory if you haven't done any VSCode customization of your repository yet.
  • Cmd-Shift-P to bring up preferences, then choose Tasks: Configure default build task and choose GRUB as the default build task. You should be able to use this task as-is. The task gets the GRUB variables from your preferences and combines it with some parameters it determines, such as the client directory and repo, and then calls the grub_client script.
• Set your GRUB variables for VSCode
  • Copy the contents of grub_variables.json into the clipboard (Cmd-a then Cmd-c)
  • Cmd-Shift-P to bring up preferences, then choose Tasks: Open User Settings (JSON) and paste the variables into your user settings file. You will need to edit the variables to reflect the parameters you want to pass to grub_client
    • grub.server_root is the root directory on your z/OS system that you want to clone your repository to.
    • grub.server is the ssh Host specification. See ssh host specification below for more details.
    • grub.client_build_tool is the absolute path to grub_client on your Desktop.
    • grub.server_build_tool is the absolute path to grub_server on your server.
    • grub.server_git_dir is the absolute path to the git program on your server.

On your z/OS userid:

• cd $HOME/tools
• git clone git@github.com:MikeFultonDev/grub.git

• After installation, you can run the GRUB client:
  • by adding the GRUB bin directory to your PATH and then issuing: grub_client <parameters>
  • by running grub_client directly, e.g. <GRUB-directory>/grub_client <parameters>
• This will perform the following steps:
  • use git to synchronize the files to the server
  • run the remote build process on the server
  • transfer the output and errors to temporary files on your desktop

• After installation
  • Open a file from the repository you want to build in VSCode
  • On a Mac, Cmd-Shift-B will launch the build and you can see the results in the terminal, as described in Running GRUB from the command-line.
  • On completion, you can hover over the output file name or the error file name, Cmd-Left-Click and the file will be shown in your editor.

GRUB uses an ssh Host specification to describe the userid and server to connect to. GRUB requires that the ssh Host specification includes at least a HostName and User specification, defined in your .ssh/config file in your $HOME directory. For example, if you wanted to create a host called fultonm_zos, where your userid is fultonm, and your server is zos.ibm.com, then you would have a section in your .ssh/config file as follows:

Host fultonm_zos
  HostName zos.ibm.com
  User fultonm

It is strongly recommended that you configure a public/private key for communicating with the server so that you won't be prompted for a password when connecting to the server.