4mXNETHACK24m(6)                      Games Manual                      4mXNETHACK24m(6)

1mNAME0m
       xnethack - Exploring The Mazes of Menace

1mSYNOPSIS0m
       1mxnethack 22m[ 1m-d22m|1m--directory 4m22mdirectory24m ] [ 1m-w22m|1m--windowtype 4m22minterface24m ]
       [ 1m--xnethackrc:4m22mRC-file24m | 1m--no-xnethackrc 22m] [ 1m-n 22m] [ 1m-dec 22m| 1m-ibm 22m]
       [ 1m-u 4m22mplayername24m ] [ 1m-X 22m| 1m-D 22m] [ 1m-p 4m22mprofession24m ] [ 1m-r 4m22mrace24m ] [ 1m-@ 22m]

       Also [ 1m-A22m|1m-Arc 22m| 1m-B22m|1m-Bar 22m| 1m-C22m|1m-Cav 22m| 1m-H22m|1m-Hea 22m| 1m-K22m|1m-Kni 22m| 1m-M22m|1m-Mon 22m|
       1m-P22m|1m-Pri 22m| 1m-R22m|1m-Rog 22m| 1m-Ran 22m| 1m-S22m|1m-Sam 22m| 1m-T22m|1m-Tou 22m| 1m-V22m|1m-Val 22m| 1m-W22m|1m-Wiz 22m]

       1mxnethack 22m[ 1m-d22m|1m--directory 4m22mdirectory24m ] 1m-s22m|1m--scores 22m[ 1m-v 22m]
       [ 1m-p 4m22mprofession24m ] [ 1m-r 4m22mrace24m ] [ 4mplayernames24m ]

       1mxnethack 22m[ 1m--usage 22m| 1m--help 22m] [ 1m--showpaths 22m]
       [ 1m--version22m[1m:copy22m|1m:dump22m|1m:show22m] ]

1mDESCRIPTION0m
       4mxNetHack24m is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) - like game.  The
       standard tty display and command structure resemble rogue.

       Other, more graphical display options exist for most platforms.

       To  get started you really only need to know two commands.  The command
       1m?  22mwill give you a list of the available commands  (as  well  as  other
       information)  and the command 1m/ 22mwill identify the things you see on the
       screen.

       To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to  beat  other  people's
       high  scores)  you  must locate the Amulet of Yendor which is somewhere
       below the 20th level of the dungeon and get it out.  Few people achieve
       this; most never do.  Those who have done so  go  down  in  history  as
       heroes  among  heroes — and then they find ways of making the game even
       harder.  See the 4mGuidebook24m section on Conduct if this game  has  gotten
       too easy for you.

       When  the  game ends, whether by your dying, quitting, or escaping from
       the caves, 4mxNetHack24m will give you (a fragment of) the list of top scor‐
       ers.  The scoring is based on many aspects  of  your  behavior,  but  a
       rough estimate is obtained by taking the amount of gold you've found in
       the  cave  plus four times your (real) experience.  Precious stones may
       be worth a lot of gold when brought  to  the  exit.   There  is  a  10%
       penalty for getting yourself killed.

       The environment variable XNETHACKOPTIONS can be used to initialize many
       run-time  options.   The  ?  command  provides  a  description of these
       options and syntax.  (The 1m-dec 22mand 1m-ibm 22mcommand line options are  mutu‐
       ally  exclusive  and  are equivalent to the 1mdecgraphics 22mand 1mibmgraphics0m
       run-time options described there, and are provided  purely  for  conve‐
       nience on systems supporting multiple types of terminals.)

       Because  the option list can be very long, options may also be included
       in a configuration file.  The default is located in your home directory
       and named .xnethackrc on UNIX systems (including  descendants  such  as
       linux,  NetBSD,  and  macOS).  On Windows, the name is also .xnethackrc
       but the location can vary (see 1m--showpaths 22mbelow).  On  other  systems,
       the  default  may  be different, possibly xNetHack.cnf.  On MS-DOS, the
       name  is  defaults.nh  in  xNetHack's  directory  (folder),  while   on
       VMS|OpenVMS  it  is  xnethack.ini  in your home directory.  The default
       configuration file may be overridden via the 1m--xnethackrc:4m22mrc-file24m  com‐
       mand line option or by setting XNETHACKOPTIONS in your environment to a
       string consisting of an @ character followed by the path and filename.

       The  1m-u  4m22mplayername24m option supplies the answer to the question "Who are
       you?".  It overrides any name from the options or  configuration  file,
       USER,  LOGNAME,  or getlogin(), which will otherwise be tried in order.
       If none of these provides a useful name, the player will be  asked  for
       one.  Player names (in conjunction with uids) are used to identify save
       files, so you can have several saved games under different names.  Con‐
       versely,  you  must  use the appropriate player name to restore a saved
       game.

       A 4mplayername24m suffix can be used to specify the profession, race, align‐
       ment and/or gender of the character.  The full syntax of the playername
       that includes a suffix is "name-ppp-rrr-aaa-ggg".  "ppp" are  at  least
       the  first  three letters of the profession (this can also be specified
       using a separate 1m-p 4m22mprofession24m option).  "rrr" are at least  the  first
       three letters of the character's race (this can also be specified using
       a separate 1m-r 4m22mrace24m option).  "aaa" are at least the first three letters
       of  the  character's  alignment, and "ggg" are at least the first three
       letters of the character's gender.  Any of the parts of the suffix  may
       be left out.

       1m-p  4m22mprofession24m  can be used to determine the character profession, also
       known as the role.  You can specify either the male or female name  for
       the  character  role,  or  the first three characters of the role as an
       abbreviation.

       Likewise, 1m-r 4m22mrace24m can be used to explicitly request that a race be cho‐
       sen.

       The 1m-A22m|1m-Arc 22m| 1m-B22m|1m-Bar 22m| 1m-C22m|1m-Cav 22m| 1m-H22m|1m-Hea 22m| 1m-K22m|1m-Kni 22m| 1m-M22m|1m-Mon 22m| 1m-P22m|1m-Pri0m
       | 1m-R22m|1m-Rog 22m| 1m-Ran 22m| 1m-S22m|1m-Sam 22m| 1m-T22m|1m-Tou 22m| 1m-V22m|1m-Val 22m|  1m-W22m|1m-Wiz  22moptions  for
       role  selection are maintained for compatibility with older versions of
       the program.  They are mutually exclusive and  the  single-letter  form
       must  be  uppercase.   4mRanger24m has no single-letter choice because 1m-R 22mis
       already used for the 4mRogue24m role.

       1m-@ 22mtells  xnethack  to  choose  any  omitted  characteristics  (profes‐
       sion/role, race, gender, alignment) randomly without prompting.  Other‐
       wise, leaving out any of these characteristics will result in you being
       prompted during game startup for the information.

       The 1m-n 22moption suppresses printing of any news from the game administra‐
       tor.

       The  1m-X  22moption  will start the game in a special non-scoring discovery
       mode (also known as explore mode).  1m-D 22mwill start  the  game  in  debug
       mode  (also  known as wizard mode) after changing the character name to
       “wizard”, if the player is allowed.  Otherwise it will  switch  to  1m-X22m.
       Control  of who is allowed to use debug mode is done via the “4mWIZARDS=24m”
       line in xnethack's 4msysconf24m file.

       The 1m-d 22mor 1m--directory 22moption, which must be the first  argument  if  it
       appears,  supplies a directory which is to serve as the playground.  It
       overrides the value from NETHACKDIR, HACKDIR, or the  directory  speci‐
       fied   by   the   game   administrator   during   compilation  (usually
       /usr/games/lib/nethackdir).  This option is usually only useful to  the
       game  administrator.   The  playground  must  contain several auxiliary
       files such as help files, the list of top scorers, and  a  subdirectory
       4msave24m where games are saved.

       The  1m-w  22mor  1m--windowtype 4m22minterface24m option can be used to specify which
       interface to use if the program has been built with  support  for  more
       than  one.   Specifying a value on the command line overrides any value
       specified in the run-time configuration file.  xNetHack's #version com‐
       mand shows available interfaces.

       The 1m--xnethackrc:4m22mRC-file24m option will use 4mRC-file24m instead of the default
       run-time  configuration  file   (typically   4m~/.xnethackrc24m)   and   the
       1m--no-xnethackrc  22moption  can be used to skip any run-time configuration
       file.

       Some options provide feedback and then exit rather than play the game:

       The 1m-s 22mor 1m--scores 22moption alone will print out the list of your  scores
       on  the  current  version.   An immediately following 1m-v 22mreports on all
       versions present in the score file.  ‘1m-s22m|1m-s -v22m’ may also be followed by
       arguments 1m-p 4m22mprofession24m and 1m-r 4m22mrace24m to print the scores  of  particular
       roles  and  races  only.   Either  can  be  specified multiple times to
       include more than one role or more than one race.  When both are speci‐
       fied, score entries which match either the role or the race  (or  both)
       are  printed rather than just entries which match both.  ‘1m-s22m|1m-s -v22m’ may
       be followed by one or more player names to  print  the  scores  of  the
       players  mentioned, by 'all' to print out all scores, or by a number to
       print that many top scores.  Combining names with role or race or  both
       will  report entries which match any of those rather than just the ones
       which match all.

       1m--version 22mor 1m--version:show 22mcan be used to cause xNetHack to  show  the
       version  number,  the date and time that the program was built from its
       source code, and possibly some auxiliary information about that  source
       code, then exit.  The optional auxiliary information is 4mgit24m commit hash
       (reflecting  the  source code's most recent modification when extracted
       from the 4mgit24m version control system, if that is in  use)  if  available
       when  the  program  was  built.   On some platforms such as Windows and
       macOS, a variation, 1m--version:copy22m, can be used to  cause  xNetHack  to
       show  the  version information, then exit, while also leaving a copy of
       that information in the paste buffer or clipboard for potential  inser‐
       tion into things like bug reports.  On any platform, 1m--version:dump 22mcan
       be used to show most of the data used when checking whether a save file
       or bones file is compatible with the program.  The program will display
       a line containing five numbers expressed in hexadecimal, then exit.

       1m--showpaths 22mcan be used to cause xNetHack to show where it is expecting
       to  find  various  files.   Among other things it shows the path to and
       name for the player's run-time configuration file, a  text  file  which
       can be edited to customize aspects of how the game operates.

       1m--usage 22mor 1m--help 22mwill display information similar to this manual page,
       then exit.  Use ‘1mxnethack --usage | more22m’ to read it a page at a time.

1mAUTHORS0m
       Jay  Fenlason  (+  Kenny  Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne) wrote the
       original hack, very much like rogue (but full of bugs).

       Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources  into  an  entirely
       different game.

       Mike Stephenson has continued the perversion of sources, adding various
       warped  character  classes  and  sadistic  traps  with the help of many
       strange people who reside in that place between the worlds, the  Usenet
       Zone.   A number of these miscreants are immortalized in the historical
       roll of dishonor and various other places.

       The resulting mess is now called NetHack, to denote its development  by
       the Usenet.  Andries Brouwer has made this request for the distinction,
       as he may eventually release a new version of his own.

1mFILES0m
       Run-time  configuration options were discussed above and use a platform
       specific name for a file in a platform specific  location.   For  Unix,
       the name is '.xnethackrc' in the user's home directory.

       All   other   files   are   in   the   playground  directory,  normally
       /usr/games/lib/xnethackdir.  If DLB was defined during the compile, the
       data files and special levels will be inside a  larger  file,  normally
       nhdat, instead of being separate files.

       xnethack                    The program itself.
       Guidebook | Guidebook.txt   xNetHack's user manual.
       data, oracles, rumors       Data files used by xNetHack.
       bogusmon                    Another data file.
       engrave, epitaph, tribute   Still more data files.
       symbols                     Data file holding sets of specifications
                                   for how to display monsters, objects, and
                                   map features.
       options                     Data file containing a description of the
                                   build-time option settings.
       help, hh, cmdhelp           Help data files.  ('cmdhelp' is obsolete.)
       opthelp, optmenu, wizhelp   More help data files.
       keyhelp, usagehlp           Even more help data files.
       *.lua                       Predefined special levels, dungeon control
                                   for special levels, quest texts.
       history                     A short history of NetHack.
       license                     Rules governing redistribution.
       record                      The list of top scorers.
       logfile                     An extended list of games played
                                   (optional).
       xlogfile                    A more detailed version of 'logfile'
                                   (also optional).
       paniclog                    Record of exceptional conditions
                                   discovered during program execution.
       xlock.nn                    Description of dungeon level 'nn' of
                                   active game 'x' if there's a limit on the
                                   number of simultaneously active games.
       UUcccccc.nn                 Alternate form for dungeon level 'nn'
                                   of active game by user 'UU' playing
                                   character named 'cccccc' when there's no
                                   limit on number of active games.
       perm                        Lock file for xlock.0 or UUcccccc.0.
       bonD0.nn                    Descriptions of the ghost and belongings
                                   of a deceased adventurer who met his or
                                   her demise on level 'nn'.  A subsequent
                                   character might encounter this old level.
       save/                       A subdirectory containing saved games.
       sysconf                     System-wide options.  Required if
                                   program is built with 'SYSCF' option
                                   enabled, ignored if not.

       The  location  of  'sysconf'  is  specified  at build time and can't be
       changed except by updating source file "config.h"  and  rebuilding  the
       program.

       xNetHack's  Guidebook  might  not  be  present  if  whoever packaged or
       installed the program distribution neglected to include it.

       In a perfect world, 'paniclog' would remain empty.

1mENVIRONMENT0m
       USER or LOGNAME         Your login name.
       HOME                    Your home directory.
       SHELL                   Your shell.
       TERM                    The type of your terminal.
       HACKPAGER or PAGER      Replacement for default pager.
       MAIL                    Mailbox file.
       MAILREADER              Replacement for default reader
                               (probably /bin/mail or /usr/ucb/mail).
       NETHACKDIR or HACKDIR   Playground.
       XNETHACKOPTIONS         String predefining several xNetHack options.

       If  the  same  option  is  specified  in   both   XNETHACKOPTIONS   and
       .xnethackrc, the value assigned in XNETHACKOPTIONS takes precedence.

       SHOPTYPE and SPLEVTYPE can be used in debugging (wizard) mode.
       DEBUGFILES can be used if the program was built with 'DEBUG' enabled.

1mSEE ALSO0m
       recover(6)

1mBUGS0m
       Probably infinite.

1mCOPYRIGHT0m
       This  file  is  Copyright  (C)  Robert Patrick Rankin, 2025 for version
       NetHack-3.7:1.31.  xNetHack may be freely redistributed.   See  license
       for details.

       Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

XNETHACK                        26 January 2025                    4mXNETHACK24m(6)
