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 ] [ --showpaths ] [ --version[:paste]
11 ]
12 nethack [ -d directory ] -s [ -v ] [ -p profession ] [ -r race ] [
14 playernames ]
15
17 NetHack is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) - like game. The
18 standard tty display and command structure resemble rogue.
19 Other, more graphical display options exist for most platforms.
21 To get started you really only need to know two commands. The command
23 ? will give you a list of the available commands (as well as other
24 information) and the command / will identify the things you see on the
25 screen.
26 To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to beat other people's
28 high scores) you must locate the Amulet of Yendor which is somewhere
29 below the 20th level of the dungeon and get it out. Few people achieve
30 this; most never do. Those who have go down in history as heroes among
31 heroes - and then they find ways of making the game even harder. See
32 the Guidebook section on Conduct if this game has gotten too easy for
33 you.
34 When the game ends, whether by your dying, quitting, or escaping from
36 the caves, NetHack will give you (a fragment of) the list of top scor‐
37 ers. The scoring is based on many aspects of your behavior, but a
38 rough estimate is obtained by taking the amount of gold you've found in
39 the cave plus four times your (real) experience. Precious stones may
40 be worth a lot of gold when brought to the exit. There is a 10%
41 penalty for getting yourself killed.
42 The environment variable NETHACKOPTIONS can be used to initialize many
44 run-time options. The ? command provides a description of these
45 options and syntax. (The -dec and -ibm command line options are equiv‐
46 alent to the decgraphics and ibmgraphics run-time options described
47 there, and are provided purely for convenience on systems supporting
48 multiple types of terminals.)
49 Because the option list can be very long (particularly when specifying
51 graphics characters), options may also be included in a configuration
52 file. The default is located in your home directory and named
53 .nethackrc on Unix systems. On other systems, the default may be dif‐
54 ferent, usually NetHack.cnf. On DOS or Windows, the name is
55 defaults.nh, while on the Macintosh or BeOS, it is NetHack Defaults.
56 The configuration file's location may be specified by setting NETHACK‐
57 OPTIONS to a string consisting of an @ character followed by the file‐
58 name.
59 The -u playername option supplies the answer to the question "Who are
61 you?". It overrides any name from the options or configuration file,
62 USER, LOGNAME, or getlogin(), which will otherwise be tried in order.
63 If none of these provides a useful name, the player will be asked for
64 one. Player names (in conjunction with uids) are used to identify save
65 files, so you can have several saved games under different names. Con‐
66 versely, you must use the appropriate player name to restore a saved
67 game.
68 A playername suffix can be used to specify the profession, race, align‐
70 ment and/or gender of the character. The full syntax of the playername
71 that includes a suffix is "name-ppp-rrr-aaa-ggg". "ppp" are at least
72 the first three letters of the profession (this can also be specified
73 using a separate -p profession option). "rrr" are at least the first
74 three letters of the character's race (this can also be specified using
75 a separate -r race option). "aaa" are at least the first three letters
76 of the character's alignment, and "ggg" are at least the first three
77 letters of the character's gender. Any of the parts of the suffix may
78 be left out.
79 -p profession can be used to determine the character profession, also
81 known as the role. You can specify either the male or female name for
82 the character role, or the first three characters of the role as an
83 abbreviation. -p @ has been retained to explicitly request that a ran‐
84 dom role be chosen. It may need to be quoted with a backslash (\@) if
85 @ is the "kill" character (see "stty") for the terminal, in order to
86 prevent the current input line from being cleared.
87 Likewise, -r race can be used to explicitly request that a race be cho‐
89 sen.
90 Leaving out any of these characteristics will result in you being
92 prompted during the game startup for the information.
93 The -s option alone will print out the list of your scores on the cur‐
95 rent version. An immediately following -v reports on all versions
96 present in the score file. The -s may also be followed by arguments -p
97 and -r to print the scores of particular roles and races only. It may
98 also be followed by one or more player names to print the scores of the
99 players mentioned, by 'all' to print out all scores, or by a number to
100 print that many top scores.
101 The -n option suppresses printing of any news from the game administra‐
103 tor.
104 The -D or -X option will start the game in a special non-scoring dis‐
106 covery mode. -D will, if the player is the game administrator, start
107 in debugging (wizard) mode instead.
108 The -d option, which must be the first argument if it appears, supplies
110 a directory which is to serve as the playground. It overrides the
111 value from NETHACKDIR, HACKDIR, or the directory specified by the game
112 administrator during compilation (usually /usr/games/nethack). This
113 option is usually only useful to the game administrator. The play‐
114 ground must contain several auxiliary files such as help files, the
115 list of top scorers, and a subdirectory save where games are saved.
116 --showpaths can be used to cause NetHack to show where it is expecting
118 to find various configuration files.
119 --version can be used to cause NetHack to show the version information
121 it was compiled with, then exit. That will include the git commit hash
122 if the information was available when the game was compiled. On some
123 platforms, such as windows and macosx, a variation --version:paste can
124 be used to cause NetHack to show the version information, then exit,
125 while also leaving a copy of the version information in the paste buf‐
126 fer or clipboard for potential insertion into things like bug reports.
127
129 Jay Fenlason (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne) wrote the
130 original hack, very much like rogue (but full of bugs).
131 Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources into an entirely
133 different game.
134 Mike Stephenson has continued the perversion of sources, adding various
136 warped character classes and sadistic traps with the help of many
137 strange people who reside in that place between the worlds, the Usenet
138 Zone. A number of these miscreants are immortalized in the historical
139 roll of dishonor and various other places.
140 The resulting mess is now called NetHack, to denote its development by
142 the Usenet. Andries Brouwer has made this request for the distinction,
143 as he may eventually release a new version of his own.
144
146 Run-time configuration options were discussed above and use a platform
147 specific name for a file in a platform specific location. For Unix,
148 the name is '.nethackrc' in the user's home directory.
149 All other files are in the playground directory, normally
151 /usr/games/nethack. If DLB was defined during the compile, the data
152 files and special levels will be inside a larger file, normally nhdat,
153 instead of being separate files.
154 nethack The program itself.
156 data, oracles, rumors Data files used by NetHack.
157 quest.dat, bogusmon More data files.
158 engrave, epitaph, tribute Still more data files.
159 symbols Data file holding sets of specifications
160 for how to display monsters, objects, and
161 map features.
162 options Data file containing a description of the
163 build-time option settings.
164 help, hh Help data files.
165 cmdhelp, opthelp, wizhelp More help data files.
166 *.lev Predefined special levels.
167 dungeon Control file for special levels.
168 history A short history of NetHack.
169 license Rules governing redistribution.
170 record The list of top scorers.
171 logfile An extended list of games played
172 (optional).
173 xlogfile A more detailed version of 'logfile'
174 (also optional).
175 paniclog Record of exceptional conditions
176 discovered during program execution.
177 xlock.nn Description of dungeon level 'nn' of
178 active game 'x' if there's a limit on the
179 number of simultaneously active games.
180 UUcccccc.nn Alternate form for dungeon level 'nn'
181 of active game by user 'UU' playing
182 character named 'cccccc' when there's no
183 limit on number of active games.
184 perm Lock file for xlock.0 or UUcccccc.0.
185 bonesDD.nn Descriptions of the ghost and belongings
186 of a deceased adventurer who met his
187 or her demise on level 'nn'.
188 save/ A subdirectory containing saved games.
190 sysconf System-wide options. Required if
192 program is built with 'SYSCF' option
193 enabled, ignored if not.
194 The location of 'sysconf' is specified at build time and can't be
196 changed except by updating source file "config.h" and rebuilding the
197 program.
198 In a perfect world, 'paniclog' would remain empty.
200
202 USER or LOGNAME Your login name.
203 HOME Your home directory.
204 SHELL Your shell.
205 TERM The type of your terminal.
206 HACKPAGER or PAGER Replacement for default pager.
207 MAIL Mailbox file.
208 MAILREADER Replacement for default reader
209 (probably /bin/mail or /usr/ucb/mail).
210 NETHACKDIR or HACKDIR Playground.
211 NETHACKOPTIONS String predefining several NetHack
212 options.
213 If the same option is specified in both NETHACKOPTIONS and .nethackrc,
215 the value assigned in NETHACKOPTIONS takes precedence.
216 SHOPTYPE and SPLEVTYPE can be used in debugging (wizard) mode.
218 DEBUGFILES can be used if the program was built with 'DEBUG' enabled.
219
221 dgn_comp(6), lev_comp(6), recover(6)
222
224 Probably infinite.
225
227 This file is Copyright (C) Robert Patrick Rankin and was last modified
228 2019/09/15 (version NetHack-3.6:1.16). NetHack may be freely redis‐
229 tributed. See license for details.
230 Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
232NETHACK 2 February 2018 NETHACK(6)