4a6bbaefd4ad57f0176334fb017c9aed253c0f4c
hiram
  Thu Dec 11 15:28:52 2025 -0800
can not use the genome-test.soe.ucsc.edu/kent.git server outside UCSC environment refs #36817

diff --git src/userApps/README src/userApps/README
index 70042498161..dee2aef402c 100644
--- src/userApps/README
+++ src/userApps/README
@@ -45,44 +45,47 @@
 
 Optional:
 'git' source code management: [http://git-scm.com/downloads](http://git-scm.com/downloads)
 
 It is best to install these packages with your standard operating
 system package management tools.
     (see notes below about installing packages)
 
 ========================================================================
 
 1. Fetch the userApps directory:
 
    Alternative to `git` command, a gzipped tar file is available
    with all the source, via FTP or HTTP:
 
-        ftp://hgdownload.soe.ucsc.edu/apache/htdocs/admin/exe/userApps.src.tgz
+        curl --output "userApps.src.tgz" \
             http://hgdownload.soe.ucsc.edu/admin/exe/userApps.src.tgz
 
    Unpacking that file (tar xvzf userApps.src.tgz)
    creates a directory: `./userApps/`
    with all the source.  Proceed to step 2 to build this directory.
 
-   Using `git` to fetch the source, creates a directory `./userApps/`
+   Or, using `curl` with the github kent source code to fetch the source,
+       create a directory `./userApps/`
 
-        git archive --format=zip -9 \
-           --remote=git://genome-test.soe.ucsc.edu/kent.git \
-           beta src/userApps > userApps.zip
-        unzip -d userApps -j userApps.zip
+        mkdir userApps
         cd userApps
+        curl -s \
+  "https://api.github.com/repos/ucscGenomeBrowser/kent/contents/src/userApps" \
+     | grep '"download_url"' | cut -d '"' -f 4 | wget -i -
+        chmod +x fetchKentSource.sh
+
         make fetchSource
 
 2. Build the utilities:
 
         cd userApps
         make
 
    This build fetches (with git) approximately 200 Mb/7,800 files of
       kent source code, and constructs about 223 command binaries
       of approximate size near 600 Mb.
 
    The resulting binaries are in `./userApps/bin/`
 
    Note: there are no required shell environment settings as discussed
          in the genome browser build instructions.  In fact, this build