1NETHACK(6)                       Games Manual                       NETHACK(6)
2
3
4

NAME

6       nethack - Exploring The Mazes of Menace
7

SYNOPSIS

9       nethack [ -d directory ] [ -n ] [ -p profession ] [ -r race ] [ -[DX] ]
10       [ -u playername ] [ -dec ] [ -ibm ] [ --showpaths ] [ --version[:paste]
11       ]
12
13       nethack [ -d directory ] -s [ -v ] [ -p profession ] [ -r race ] [
14       playernames ]
15

DESCRIPTION

17       NetHack is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) - like game.   The
18       standard tty display and command structure resemble rogue.
19
20       Other, more graphical display options exist for most platforms.
21
22       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
27       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
35       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
43       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
50       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
60       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
69       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
80       -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
88       Likewise, -r race can be used to explicitly request that a race be cho‐
89       sen.
90
91       Leaving out any of these  characteristics  will  result  in  you  being
92       prompted during the game startup for the information.
93
94       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
102       The -n option suppresses printing of any news from the game administra‐
103       tor.
104
105       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
109       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
117       --showpaths can be used to cause NetHack to show where it is  expecting
118       to find various configuration files.
119
120       --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

AUTHORS

129       Jay  Fenlason  (+  Kenny  Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne) wrote the
130       original hack, very much like rogue (but full of bugs).
131
132       Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources  into  an  entirely
133       different game.
134
135       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
141       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

FILES

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
150       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
155       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
189       save/                       A subdirectory containing saved games.
190
191       sysconf                     System-wide options.  Required if
192                                   program is built with 'SYSCF' option
193                                   enabled, ignored if not.
194
195       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
199       In a perfect world, 'paniclog' would remain empty.
200

ENVIRONMENT

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
214       If  the same option is specified in both NETHACKOPTIONS and .nethackrc,
215       the value assigned in NETHACKOPTIONS takes precedence.
216
217       SHOPTYPE and SPLEVTYPE can be used in debugging (wizard) mode.
218       DEBUGFILES can be used if the program was built with 'DEBUG' enabled.
219

SEE ALSO

221       dgn_comp(6), lev_comp(6), recover(6)
222

BUGS

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
231       Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
232
233
234
235NETHACK                         2 February 2018                     NETHACK(6)
Impressum