1NETHACK(6) Games Manual NETHACK(6)
2
6 nethack - Exploring The Mazes of Menace
7
9 nethack [ -d directory ] [ -n ] [ -p profession ] [ -r race ] [ -[DX] ]
10 [ -u playername ] [ -dec ] [ -ibm ] [ --version[:paste] ]
11 nethack [ -d directory ] -s [ -v ] [ -p profession ] [ -r race ] [
13 playernames ]
14
16 NetHack is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) - like game. The
17 standard tty display and command structure resemble rogue.
18 Other, more graphical display options exist for most platforms.
20 To get started you really only need to know two commands. The command
22 ? will give you a list of the available commands (as well as other
23 information) and the command / will identify the things you see on the
24 screen.
25 To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to beat other people's
27 high scores) you must locate the Amulet of Yendor which is somewhere
28 below the 20th level of the dungeon and get it out. Few people achieve
29 this; most never do. Those who have go down in history as heroes among
30 heroes - and then they find ways of making the game even harder. See
31 the Guidebook section on Conduct if this game has gotten too easy for
32 you.
33 When the game ends, whether by your dying, quitting, or escaping from
35 the caves, NetHack will give you (a fragment of) the list of top scor‐
36 ers. The scoring is based on many aspects of your behavior, but a
37 rough estimate is obtained by taking the amount of gold you've found in
38 the cave plus four times your (real) experience. Precious stones may
39 be worth a lot of gold when brought to the exit. There is a 10%
40 penalty for getting yourself killed.
41 The environment variable NETHACKOPTIONS can be used to initialize many
43 run-time options. The ? command provides a description of these
44 options and syntax. (The -dec and -ibm command line options are equiv‐
45 alent to the decgraphics and ibmgraphics run-time options described
46 there, and are provided purely for convenience on systems supporting
47 multiple types of terminals.)
48 Because the option list can be very long (particularly when specifying
50 graphics characters), options may also be included in a configuration
51 file. The default is located in your home directory and named
52 .nethackrc on Unix systems. On other systems, the default may be dif‐
53 ferent, usually NetHack.cnf. On DOS or Windows, the name is
54 defaults.nh, while on the Macintosh or BeOS, it is NetHack Defaults.
55 The configuration file's location may be specified by setting NETHACK‐
56 OPTIONS to a string consisting of an @ character followed by the file‐
57 name.
58 The -u playername option supplies the answer to the question "Who are
60 you?". It overrides any name from the options or configuration file,
61 USER, LOGNAME, or getlogin(), which will otherwise be tried in order.
62 If none of these provides a useful name, the player will be asked for
63 one. Player names (in conjunction with uids) are used to identify save
64 files, so you can have several saved games under different names. Con‐
65 versely, you must use the appropriate player name to restore a saved
66 game.
67 A playername suffix can be used to specify the profession, race, align‐
69 ment and/or gender of the character. The full syntax of the playername
70 that includes a suffix is "name-ppp-rrr-aaa-ggg". "ppp" are at least
71 the first three letters of the profession (this can also be specified
72 using a separate -p profession option). "rrr" are at least the first
73 three letters of the character's race (this can also be specified using
74 a separate -r race option). "aaa" are at last the first three letters
75 of the character's alignment, and "ggg" are at least the first three
76 letters of the character's gender. Any of the parts of the suffix may
77 be left out.
78 -p profession can be used to determine the character profession, also
80 known as the role. You can specify either the male or female name for
81 the character role, or the first three characters of the role as an
82 abbreviation. -p @ has been retained to explicitly request that a ran‐
83 dom role be chosen. It may need to be quoted with a backslash (\@) if
84 @ is the "kill" character (see "stty") for the terminal, in order to
85 prevent the current input line from being cleared.
86 Likewise, -r race can be used to explicitly request that a race be cho‐
88 sen.
89 Leaving out any of these characteristics will result in you being
91 prompted during the game startup for the information.
92 The -s option alone will print out the list of your scores on the cur‐
94 rent version. An immediately following -v reports on all versions
95 present in the score file. The -s may also be followed by arguments -p
96 and -r to print the scores of particular roles and races only. It may
97 also be followed by one or more player names to print the scores of the
98 players mentioned, by 'all' to print out all scores, or by a number to
99 print that many top scores.
100 The -n option suppresses printing of any news from the game administra‐
102 tor.
103 The -D or -X option will start the game in a special non-scoring dis‐
105 covery mode. -D will, if the player is the game administrator, start
106 in debugging (wizard) mode instead.
107 The -d option, which must be the first argument if it appears, supplies
109 a directory which is to serve as the playground. It overrides the
110 value from NETHACKDIR, HACKDIR, or the directory specified by the game
111 administrator during compilation (usually /usr/games/nethack). This
112 option is usually only useful to the game administrator. The play‐
113 ground must contain several auxiliary files such as help files, the
114 list of top scorers, and a subdirectory save where games are saved.
115 --version can be used to cause NetHack to show the version information
117 it was compiled with, then exit. That will include the git commit hash
118 if the information was available when the game was compiled. On some
119 platforms, such as windows and macosx, a variation --version:paste can
120 be used to cause NetHack to show the version information, then exit,
121 while also leaving a copy of the version information in the paste buf‐
122 fer or clipboard for potential insertion into things like bug reports.
123
125 Jay Fenlason (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne) wrote the
126 original hack, very much like rogue (but full of bugs).
127 Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources into an entirely
129 different game.
130 Mike Stephenson has continued the perversion of sources, adding various
132 warped character classes and sadistic traps with the help of many
133 strange people who reside in that place between the worlds, the Usenet
134 Zone. A number of these miscreants are immortalized in the historical
135 roll of dishonor and various other places.
136 The resulting mess is now called NetHack, to denote its development by
138 the Usenet. Andries Brouwer has made this request for the distinction,
139 as he may eventually release a new version of his own.
140
142 Run-time configuration options were discussed above and use a platform
143 specific name for a file in a platform specific location. For Unix,
144 the name is '.nethackrc' in the user's home directory.
145 All other files are in the playground directory, normally
147 /usr/games/nethack. If DLB was defined during the compile, the data
148 files and special levels will be inside a larger file, normally nhdat,
149 instead of being separate files.
150 nethack The program itself.
152 data, oracles, rumors Data files used by NetHack.
153 quest.dat, bogusmon More data files.
154 engrave, epitaph, tribute Still more data files.
155 symbols Data file holding sets of specifications
156 for how to display monsters, objects, and
157 map features.
158 options Data file containing a description of the
159 build-time option settings.
160 help, hh Help data files.
161 cmdhelp, opthelp, wizhelp More help data files.
162 *.lev Predefined special levels.
163 dungeon Control file for special levels.
164 history A short history of NetHack.
165 license Rules governing redistribution.
166 record The list of top scorers.
167 logfile An extended list of games played
168 (optional).
169 xlogfile A more detailed version of 'logfile'
170 (also optional).
171 paniclog Record of exceptional conditions
172 discovered during program execution.
173 xlock.nn Description of dungeon level 'nn' of
174 active game 'x' if there's a limit on the
175 number of simultaneously active games.
176 UUcccccc.nn Alternate form for dungeon level 'nn'
177 of active game by user 'UU' playing
178 character named 'cccccc' when there's no
179 limit on number of active games.
180 perm Lock file for xlock.0 or UUcccccc.0.
181 bonesDD.nn Descriptions of the ghost and belongings
182 of a deceased adventurer who met his
183 or her demise on level 'nn'.
184 save/ A subdirectory containing saved games.
186 sysconf System-wide options. Required if
188 program is built with 'SYSCF' option
189 enabled, ignored if not.
190 The location of 'sysconf' is specified at build time and can't be
192 changed except by updating source file "config.h" and rebuilding the
193 program.
194 In a perfect world, 'paniclog' would remain empty.
196
198 USER or LOGNAME Your login name.
199 HOME Your home directory.
200 SHELL Your shell.
201 TERM The type of your terminal.
202 HACKPAGER or PAGER Replacement for default pager.
203 MAIL Mailbox file.
204 MAILREADER Replacement for default reader
205 (probably /bin/mail or /usr/ucb/mail).
206 NETHACKDIR or HACKDIR Playground.
207 NETHACKOPTIONS String predefining several NetHack
208 options.
209 If the same option is specified in both NETHACKOPTIONS and .nethackrc,
211 the value assigned in NETHACKOPTIONS takes precedence.
212 SHOPTYPE and SPLEVTYPE can be used in debugging (wizard) mode.
214 DEBUGFILES can be used if the program was built with 'DEBUG' enabled.
215
217 dgn_comp(6), lev_comp(6), recover(6)
218
220 Probably infinite.
221
223 This file is Copyright (C) Robert Patrick Rankin and was last modified
224 2018/04/25 (version NetHack-3.6.0:1.14). NetHack may be freely redis‐
225 tributed. See license for details.
226 Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
228NETHACK 2 February 2018 NETHACK(6)