Troubleshooting

1. NotProjectAssistantError()

Running the CLI script "udacity submit" prints an error message to the console:

raise NotProjectAssistantError()

udacity_pa.projectassistant.NotProjectAssistantError: Not an Udacity Project Assistant directory. No .udacity-pa folder found.

This error means that the current working directory of the terminal where the udacity submit command was executed is not recognized as a valid project folder because the hidden folder containing PA settings (the .udacity-pa folder) was not found.
Make sure you have cloned all files/folders from the git repository for the project (this should not be an issue if you used the "git clone ..." command)
Make sure that your current working directory in the terminal matches the project folder. You can use ls (bash) or dir (windows) to see the contents of the current directory, and cd to change the current directory.

2. Unable to Submit in the Classroom

Error message in the classroom that says "You must first submit to the PA" when you try to submit the zip file
- Verify that you're using the correct account (try logging out & back in after clearing browser cache)
- Make sure you're at the correct project URL -- try manually navigating to the project submission page from the classroom (there have been cases of PA feedback mistakenly showing the wrong rubric ID for submissions)
- Verify that you're submitting exactly the zip file created by the CLI tool. You cannot add, remove, or alter any of the files in the zip archive.

3. Unable to Authenticate CLI submission with Email & Password

Make sure that you are authenticating with the correct email and password (many students have more than one account). Your email address can be verified from the settings page in the classroom.
Students who authenticate with Google or Facebook accounts must manually configure an authentication token to use the PA. (NOTE: all students--including those who use an email and password for authentication--can manually configure the jwt file for submission, but it is required for students who use Google or Facebook.)
- Follow the instructions in the PA FAQ Troubleshooting section to manually configure authentication with a jwt

4. Unable to Authenticate CLI submissions with JWT

The PA CLI will fail silently if the token file is not found in the required location--it automatically reverts back to the username/password authentication method. This creates confusion for some students when they try to manually install the token and it still asks for a username and password. Most often this is resolved by correctly interpreting folder names specified using variables/aliases (e.g., ~/.udacity-pa on unix/OS X or %APPDATA%\udacity-pa on Windows).
- Verify that the token is in the correct location (the most common mistake is placing the token in the .udacity-pa folder within the project repo rather than the ~/.udacity-pa folder)

The PA has a debugging capability to check for the jwt. Update to the latest version of the PA script, then use the diagnose action (Note: the script must be run from a valid AIND project folder from GitHub, e.g., AIND-Sudoku -- running in a non-PA folder will raise an error, "No .udacity-pa folder found"):

$ pip install --upgrade udacity-pa

$ git clone https://github.com/udacity/AIND-Sudoku; cd AIND-Sudoku

$ udacity diagnose

If you are in a valid project folder, then the diagnose script will print output including the expected jwt location & whether the script was able to find it there. For example, on OS X:

    "proxies": {},

    "default_jwt_path": "/Users/user/.udacity-pa/jwt",

    "jwt_present": true,

    "projects_file_present": true,

    "terminal": "xterm-256color",

    "platform": "darwin"

5. Other CLI Authentication Errors

In some cases, local network settings may cause pernicious problems with authentication. The best sign of these issues is that you've tried manually configuring the jwt token and verified it with the PA diagnose command but the submit command still asks for a username and password. This is an especially common problem for students who use computers provided by their employers, which frequently have strict security policies.
- Make sure that you do not have any software running that would prevent establishing a web request in their terminal (includes firewalls, VPNs, proxy servers, and anti-virus software)

6. Non-Zero Exit Status in CLI Feedback

Some projects can return test failure feedback message indicating non-zero exit status (e.g., -9 or -1). In virtually all cases this indicates that the host OS killed the test for violation of a resource limit (e.g., execution time, memory, etc). Exit status -9 usually means that the sandbox exceeded the memory limit; exit status -1 often indicates a problem executing some part of the code (e.g., syntax errors in student code like mixed tabs and spaces, incorrect indent levels, etc.).
- Check your code for functions that might be inefficient or hitting infinite loops; use a static analysis tool to check for syntax errors or other issues.

Note: These error messages are typically generated by the system managing the PA sandbox, so the errors are not pretty-printed. You may have to dig into the message to find the underlying error.

Example Exit Status 1:

    "error": "{\"stdout\": \"\", \"run_stdout\": \"\", \"cmd\": \"sudo -H -u vmuser_wdrxhozp bash -c \\\"cd /home/vmuser_wdrxhozp; ulimit -f 160000 ; ulimit -c 10000 ; python run.py sudoku 1> run_stdout.txt 2> run_stderr.txt\\\"\", \"return_code\": 1, \"run_stderr\": \"Traceback (most recent call last):\\n  File \\\"run3.py\\\", line 8, in <module>\\n    import workspace.solution as solution\\n  File \\\"/home/vmuser_wdrxhozp/workspace/solution.py\\\", line 13\\n    values[box] = value\\n                      ^\\nIndentationError: unindent does not match any outer indentation level\\nTraceback (most recent call last):\\n  File \\\"run.py\\\", line 9, in <module>\\n    main()\\n  File \\\"run.py\\\", line 6, in main\\n    sp.check_call([python3_cmd(), 'run3.py'])\\n  File \\\"/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py\\\", line 541, in check_call\\n    raise CalledProcessError(retcode, cmd)\\nsubprocess.CalledProcessError: Command '['/opt/anaconda3/bin/python', 'run3.py']' returned non-zero exit status 1\\n\", \"stderr\": \"\"}"

In the middle of that message is the root cause of the failure, an indentation error on line 13 of the submitted "solution.py" file (from the Sudoku project):

  File "/home/vmuser_wdrxhozp/workspace/solution.py", line 13

    values[box] = value

IndentationError: unindent does not match any outer indentation level

7. Max retries exceeded

requests.exceptions.ConnectionError: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='project-assistant.udacity.com', port=443): Max retries exceeded with url: /auth/udacity/callback (Caused by NewConnectionError('<requests.packages.urllib3.connection.VerifiedHTTPSConnection object at 0x10634c390>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno 8] nodename nor servname provided, or not known',))

This error almost always indicates a client-side network problem. It typically indicates that the terminal has lost network connectivity. It is most frequently seen when the PA tool is run inside a virtual environment (especially if the host OS of the VM is Windows). It seems to occur more frequently when the host operating system changes power state (opening/closing laptop lid, plugging in or unplugging the power adapter, or activating the screensaver or lock screen.)
This problem can usually be solved by restarting the terminal; restarting the VM (if using one); or restarting the host machine. If restarting the machines does not fix the problem, check your network setting. Proxy servers, VPNs, antivirus, and firewall software can all interrupt network connectivity and block the PA CLI.

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