Original version - Eric S. Raymond
(Edited and expanded for 3.7 by Mike Stephenson and others)
- December 19, 2020
+ January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
you have seen on the current dungeon level; as you explore more
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
you have available for spell casting. Again, resting will
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
scribe things that are impossible to represent visually. If you
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
Da - drop all objects, without asking for confirmation.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
an arrow while not wielding a bow, you are throwing it by
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
(R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
mands. What extended commands are available depends on what
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
fountains, and so on; extra stairs leading to another
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
current game, you are asked to confirm your intent before
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
Do a shell escape, switching from NetHack to a subprocess.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
List vanquished monsters. Autocompletes. Debug mode only.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
than one. Autocompletes. Debug mode only. Default key is
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
Sokoban. (Hint: to solve Sokoban puzzles, you often need to move
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
ing the "#chat" command while standing on it. Using an item
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
object or pile of objects, or on a trap, or attempt to move onto
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
creature.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
tent, which can be error prone if you're using `y' to move. You
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
you are carrying around with you through the dungeon will
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
within the game. A "glass half full versus glass half empty"
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
of armor--is a factor too; also, some monsters are particularly
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
of ammunition at once--or hold several missiles in your hand--and
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
you feel more confident in your skills. At that point you can
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
of armor:
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
open.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
map. That remains the case even if it is not actually there any
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
and candy bars), and lumps of royal jelly. Monks are expected to
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
The identity of scrolls and spellbooks (and knowledge of spells)
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
<Rank> - Attained rank title <Rank>.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
abled by setting the correspondingly named option in
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
a CHOOSE directive has selected that section.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
extended command. Prefix the command with "!" to disable the
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
Define a sound mapping. See the "Configuring User Sounds"
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
option to the list, and turn it off by typing a `!' or "no"
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
command. Persistent.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
autopickup
Automatically pick up things onto which you move (default on).
- Persistent. See pickup_types to refine the behavior.
+ Persistent.
+
+ See pickup_types and also autopickup_exception to refine the
+ behavior.
autoquiver
- This option controls what happens when you attempt the `f'
- (fire) command when nothing is quivered or readied (default
- false). When true, the computer will fill your quiver or
- quiver sack or make ready some suitable weapon. Note that it
- will not take into account the blessed/cursed status, enchant-
+ This option controls what happens when you attempt the `f'
+ (fire) command when nothing is quivered or readied (default
+ false). When true, the computer will fill your quiver or
+ quiver sack or make ready some suitable weapon. Note that it
+ will not take into account the blessed/cursed status, enchant-
ment, damage, or quality of the weapon; you are free to manual-
- ly fill your quiver or quiver sack or make ready with the `Q'
+ ly fill your quiver or quiver sack or make ready with the `Q'
command instead. If no weapon is found or the option is false,
the `t' (throw) command is executed instead. Persistent.
autounlock
- Walking into a locked door or looting a locked container while
- carrying an unlocking tool (such as a key) will ask whether to
- use that tool to unlock the door or container (default true).
+ Walking into a locked door or looting a locked container while
+ carrying an unlocking tool (such as a key) will ask whether to
+ use that tool to unlock the door or container (default true).
Persistent.
blind
tent.
bones
- Allow saving and loading bones files (default true). Persis-
+ Allow saving and loading bones files (default true). Persis-
tent.
boulder
- Set the character used to display boulders (default is the
+ Set the character used to display boulders (default is the
"large rock" class symbol, ``').
catname
- Name your starting cat (for example "catname:Morris"). Cannot
+ Name your starting cat (for example "catname:Morris"). Cannot
be set with the `O' command.
- character
- Synonym for "role" to pick the type of your character (for ex-
- ample "character:Monk"). See role for more details.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+ character
+ Synonym for "role" to pick the type of your character (for ex-
+ ample "character:Monk"). See role for more details.
+
checkpoint
- Save game state after each level change, for possible recovery
+ Save game state after each level change, for possible recovery
after program crash (default on). Persistent.
clicklook
- Allows looking at things on the screen by navigating the mouse
+ Allows looking at things on the screen by navigating the mouse
over them and clicking the right mouse button (default off).
cmdassist
- Have the game provide some additional command assistance for
- new players if it detects some anticipated mistakes (default
+ Have the game provide some additional command assistance for
+ new players if it detects some anticipated mistakes (default
on).
confirm
- Have user confirm attacks on pets, shopkeepers, and other
+ Have user confirm attacks on pets, shopkeepers, and other
peaceable creatures (default on). Persistent.
dark_room
Show out-of-sight areas of lit rooms (default on). Persistent.
disclose
- Controls what information the program reveals when the game
- ends. Value is a space separated list of prompting/category
- pairs (default is "ni na nv ng nc no", prompt with default re-
+ Controls what information the program reveals when the game
+ ends. Value is a space separated list of prompting/category
+ pairs (default is "ni na nv ng nc no", prompt with default re-
sponse of `n' for each candidate). Persistent. The possibili-
ties are:
c - display your conduct; also achievements, if any;
o - display dungeon overview.
- Each disclosure possibility can optionally be preceded by a
- prefix which lets you refine how it behaves. Here are the
+ Each disclosure possibility can optionally be preceded by a
+ prefix which lets you refine how it behaves. Here are the
valid prefixes:
y - prompt you and default to yes on the prompt;
+ - disclose it without prompting;
- - do not disclose it and do not prompt.
- The listing of vanquished monsters can be sorted, so there are
+ The listing of vanquished monsters can be sorted, so there are
two additional choices for `v':
? - prompt you and default to ask on the prompt;
# - disclose it without prompting, ask for sort order.
Asking refers to picking one of the orderings from a menu. The
- `+' disclose without prompting choice, or being prompted and
- answering `y' rather than `a', will default to showing monsters
- in the traditional order, from high level to low level.
-
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+ `+' disclose without prompting choice, or being prompted and
+ answering `y' rather than `a', will default to showing monsters
+ in the traditional order, from high level to low level.
+
Omitted categories are implicitly added with `n' prefix. Spec-
ified categories with omitted prefix implicitly use `+' prefix.
- Order of the disclosure categories does not matter, program
+ Order of the disclosure categories does not matter, program
display for end-of-game disclosure follows a set sequence.
- (for example "disclose:yi na +v -g o") The example sets inven-
+ (for example "disclose:yi na +v -g o") The example sets inven-
tory to prompt and default to yes, attributes to prompt and de-
fault to no, vanquished to disclose without prompting, genocid-
ed to not disclose and not prompt, conduct to implicitly prompt
and default to no, and overview to disclose without prompting.
- Note that the vanquished monsters list includes all monsters
+ Note that the vanquished monsters list includes all monsters
killed by traps and each other as well as by you. And the dun-
geon overview shows all levels you had visited but does not re-
veal things about them that you hadn't discovered.
set with the `O' command.
extmenu
- Changes the extended commands interface to pop-up a menu of
+ Changes the extended commands interface to pop-up a menu of
available commands. It is keystroke compatible with the tradi-
- tional interface except that it does not require that you hit
+ tional interface except that it does not require that you hit
Enter. It is implemented for the tty interface (default off).
For the X11 interface, which always uses a menu for choosing an
extended command, it controls whether the menu shows all avail-
- able commands (on) or just the subset of commands which have
+ able commands (on) or just the subset of commands which have
traditionally been considered extended ones (off).
female
- An obsolete synonym for "gender:female". Cannot be set with
+ An obsolete synonym for "gender:female". Cannot be set with
the `O' command.
fixinv
- An object's inventory letter sticks to it when it's dropped
- (default on). If this is off, dropping an object shifts all
+ An object's inventory letter sticks to it when it's dropped
+ (default on). If this is off, dropping an object shifts all
the remaining inventory letters. Persistent.
force_invmenu
- Commands asking for an inventory item show a menu instead of a
+ Commands asking for an inventory item show a menu instead of a
text query with possible menu letters. Default is off.
fruit
- Name a fruit after something you enjoy eating (for example
- "fruit:mango") (default "slime mold"). Basically a nostalgic
- whimsy that NetHack uses from time to time. You should set
- this to something you find more appetizing than slime mold.
- Apples, oranges, pears, bananas, and melons already exist in
- NetHack, so don't use those.
-
- gender
- Your starting gender (gender:male or gender:female). You may
+ Name a fruit after something you enjoy eating (for example
+ "fruit:mango") (default "slime mold"). Basically a nostalgic
+ whimsy that NetHack uses from time to time. You should set
+ this to something you find more appetizing than slime mold.
+ Apples, oranges, pears, bananas, and melons already exist in
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- specify just the first letter. Although you can still denote
+ NetHack, so don't use those.
+
+ gender
+ Your starting gender (gender:male or gender:female). You may
+ specify just the first letter. Although you can still denote
your gender using the "male" and "female" options, the "gender"
- option will take precedence. The default is to randomly pick
- an appropriate gender. If you prefix the value with `!' or
- "no", you will exclude that gender from being picked randomly.
+ option will take precedence. The default is to randomly pick
+ an appropriate gender. If you prefix the value with `!' or
+ "no", you will exclude that gender from being picked randomly.
Cannot be set with the `O' command. Persistent.
goldX
- When filtering objects based on bless/curse state (BUCX),
- whether to treat gold pieces as X (unknown bless/curse state,
- when "on") or U (known to be uncursed, when "off", the de-
- fault). Gold is never blessed or cursed, but it is not de-
+ When filtering objects based on bless/curse state (BUCX),
+ whether to treat gold pieces as X (unknown bless/curse state,
+ when "on") or U (known to be uncursed, when "off", the de-
+ fault). Gold is never blessed or cursed, but it is not de-
scribed as "uncursed" even when the implicit_uncursed option is
"off".
help
- If more information is available for an object looked at with
+ If more information is available for an object looked at with
the `/' command, ask if you want to see it (default on). Turn-
- ing help off makes just looking at things faster, since you
- aren't interrupted with the "More info?" prompt, but it also
+ ing help off makes just looking at things faster, since you
+ aren't interrupted with the "More info?" prompt, but it also
means that you might miss some interesting and/or important in-
formation. Persistent.
herecmd_menu
- When using a windowport that supports mouse and clicking on
- yourself or next to you, show a menu of possible actions for
- the location. Same as "#herecmdmenu" and "#therecmdmenu" com-
+ When using a windowport that supports mouse and clicking on
+ yourself or next to you, show a menu of possible actions for
+ the location. Same as "#herecmdmenu" and "#therecmdmenu" com-
mands.
hilite_pet
- Visually distinguish pets from similar animals (default off).
- The behavior of this option depends on the type of windowing
+ Visually distinguish pets from similar animals (default off).
+ The behavior of this option depends on the type of windowing
you use. In text windowing, text highlighting or inverse video
- is often used; with tiles, generally displays a heart symbol
+ is often used; with tiles, generally displays a heart symbol
near pets.
- With the curses interface, the petattr option controls how to
- highlight pets and setting it will turn the hilite_pet option
+ With the curses interface, the petattr option controls how to
+ highlight pets and setting it will turn the hilite_pet option
on or off as warranted.
hilite_pile
- Visually distinguish piles of objects from individual objects
+ Visually distinguish piles of objects from individual objects
(default off). The behavior of this option depends on the type
- of windowing you use. In text windowing, text highlighting or
- inverse video is often used; with tiles, generally displays a
+ of windowing you use. In text windowing, text highlighting or
+ inverse video is often used; with tiles, generally displays a
small plus-symbol beside the object on the top of the pile.
hitpointbar
- Show a hit point bar graph behind your name and title. Only
- available for TTY and Windows GUI, and only when statushilites
- is on.
-
- horsename
- Name your starting horse (for example "horsename:Trigger").
+ Show a hit point bar graph behind your name and title. Only
+ available for TTY and Windows GUI, and only when statushilites
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+ is on.
+
+ horsename
+ Name your starting horse (for example "horsename:Trigger").
Cannot be set with the `O' command.
ignintr
implicit_uncursed
Omit "uncursed" from object descriptions when it can be deduced
- from other aspects of the description (default on). Persis-
+ from other aspects of the description (default on). Persis-
tent.
If you use menu coloring, you may want to turn this off.
on). Persistent.
lit_corridor
- Show corridor squares seen by night vision or a light source
+ Show corridor squares seen by night vision or a light source
held by your character as lit (default off). Persistent.
lootabc
- When using a menu to interact with a container, use the old
- `a', `b', and `c' keyboard shortcuts rather than the mnemonics
+ When using a menu to interact with a container, use the old
+ `a', `b', and `c' keyboard shortcuts rather than the mnemonics
`o', `i', and `b' (default off). Persistent.
mail
Enable mail delivery during the game (default on). Persistent.
male
- An obsolete synonym for "gender:male". Cannot be set with the
+ An obsolete synonym for "gender:male". Cannot be set with the
`O' command.
mention_decor
- Give feedback when walking onto various dungeon features such
- as stairs, fountains, or altars which are ordinarily only de-
- scribed when covered by one or more objects (default off).
+ Give feedback when walking onto various dungeon features such
+ as stairs, fountains, or altars which are ordinarily only de-
+ scribed when covered by one or more objects (default off).
Persistent.
mention_walls
- Give feedback when walking against a wall (default off). Per-
+ Give feedback when walking against a wall (default off). Per-
sistent.
menucolors
- Enable coloring menu lines (default off). See "Configuring
+ Enable coloring menu lines (default off). See "Configuring
Menu Colors" on how to configure the colors.
menustyle
Controls the interface used when you need to choose various ob-
- jects (in response to the Drop command, for instance). The
- value specified should be the first letter of one of the fol-
- lowing: traditional, combination, full, or partial. Tradi-
- tional was the only interface available for early versions; it
- consists of a prompt for object class characters, followed by
+ jects (in response to the Drop command, for instance). The
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- an object-by-object prompt for all items matching the selected
- object class(es). Combination starts with a prompt for object
+ value specified should be the first letter of one of the fol-
+ lowing: traditional, combination, full, or partial. Tradi-
+ tional was the only interface available for early versions; it
+ consists of a prompt for object class characters, followed by
+ an object-by-object prompt for all items matching the selected
+ object class(es). Combination starts with a prompt for object
class(es) of interest, but then displays a menu of matching ob-
- jects rather than prompting one-by-one. Full displays a menu
- of object classes rather than a character prompt, and then a
- menu of matching objects for selection. Partial skips the ob-
+ jects rather than prompting one-by-one. Full displays a menu
+ of object classes rather than a character prompt, and then a
+ menu of matching objects for selection. Partial skips the ob-
ject class filtering and immediately displays a menu of all ob-
jects. Persistent.
menu_deselect_all
- Menu character accelerator to deselect all items in a menu.
+ Menu character accelerator to deselect all items in a menu.
Implemented by the Amiga, Gem, X11 and tty ports. Default `-'.
menu_deselect_page
- Menu character accelerator to deselect all items on this page
- of a menu. Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports. De-
+ Menu character accelerator to deselect all items on this page
+ of a menu. Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports. De-
fault `\'.
menu_first_page
Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports. Default `^'.
menu_headings
- Controls how the headings in a menu are highlighted. Values
- are "none", "bold", "dim", "underline", "blink", or "inverse".
+ Controls how the headings in a menu are highlighted. Values
+ are "none", "bold", "dim", "underline", "blink", or "inverse".
Not all ports can actually display all types.
menu_invert_all
- Menu character accelerator to invert all items in a menu. Im-
+ Menu character accelerator to invert all items in a menu. Im-
plemented by the Amiga, Gem, X11 and tty ports. Default `@'.
menu_invert_page
- Menu character accelerator to invert all items on this page of
- a menu. Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports. Default
+ Menu character accelerator to invert all items on this page of
+ a menu. Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports. Default
`~'.
menu_last_page
- Menu character accelerator to jump to the last page in a menu.
+ Menu character accelerator to jump to the last page in a menu.
Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports. Default `|'.
menu_next_page
- Menu character accelerator to goto the next menu page. Imple-
+ Menu character accelerator to goto the next menu page. Imple-
mented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports. Default `>'.
menu_objsyms
- Show object symbols in menu headings in menus where the object
+ Show object symbols in menu headings in menus where the object
symbols act as menu accelerators (default off).
menu_overlay
- Do not clear the screen before drawing menus, and align menus
- to the right edge of the screen. Only for the tty port. (de-
- fault on)
+ Do not clear the screen before drawing menus, and align menus
-
-
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+ to the right edge of the screen. Only for the tty port. (de-
+ fault on)
+
menu_previous_page
Menu character accelerator to goto the previous menu page. Im-
plemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports. Default `<'.
menu_search
- Menu character accelerator to search for a menu item. Imple-
+ Menu character accelerator to search for a menu item. Imple-
mented by the Amiga, Gem, X11 and tty ports. Default `:'.
menu_select_all
- Menu character accelerator to select all items in a menu. Im-
+ Menu character accelerator to select all items in a menu. Im-
plemented by the Amiga, Gem, X11 and tty ports. Default `.'.
menu_select_page
- Menu character accelerator to select all items on this page of
- a menu. Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports. Default
+ Menu character accelerator to select all items on this page of
+ a menu. Implemented by the Amiga, Gem and tty ports. Default
`,'.
monpolycontrol
off). Debug mode only.
mouse_support
- Allow use of the mouse for input and travel. Valid settings
+ Allow use of the mouse for input and travel. Valid settings
are:
0 - disabled
1 - enabled and make OS adjustments to support mouse use
2 - like 1 but does not make any OS adjustments
- Omitting a value is the same as specifying 1 and negating
+ Omitting a value is the same as specifying 1 and negating
mouse_support is the same as specifying 0.
msghistory
- The number of top line messages to keep (and be able to recall
+ The number of top line messages to keep (and be able to recall
with `^P') (default 20). Cannot be set with the `O' command.
msg_window
- Allows you to change the way recalled messages are displayed.
- Currently it is only supported for tty (all four choices) and
- for curses (`f' and `r' choices, default `r'). The possible
+ Allows you to change the way recalled messages are displayed.
+ Currently it is only supported for tty (all four choices) and
+ for curses (`f' and `r' choices, default `r'). The possible
values are:
s - single message (default; only choice prior to 3.4.0);
f - full window, oldest message first;
r - full window reversed, newest message first.
- For backward compatibility, no value needs to be specified
- (which defaults to "full"), or it can be negated (which
+ For backward compatibility, no value needs to be specified
+ (which defaults to "full"), or it can be negated (which
defaults to "single").
- name
- Set your character's name (defaults to your user name). You
- can also set your character's role by appending a dash and one
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+ name
+ Set your character's name (defaults to your user name). You
+ can also set your character's role by appending a dash and one
or more letters of the role (that is, by suffixing one of -A -B
- -C -H -K -M -P -Ra -Ro -S -T -V -W). If -@ is used for the
- role, then a random one will be automatically chosen. Cannot
+ -C -H -K -M -P -Ra -Ro -S -T -V -W). If -@ is used for the
+ role, then a random one will be automatically chosen. Cannot
be set with the `O' command.
news
Send padding nulls to the terminal (default on). Persistent.
number_pad
- Use digit keys instead of letters to move (default 0 or off).
+ Use digit keys instead of letters to move (default 0 or off).
Valid settings are:
0 - move by letters; "yuhjklbn"
4 - combines 3 with 2; phone layout plus MS-DOS compatibility
-1 - by letters but use `z' to go northwest, `y' to zap wands
- For backward compatibility, omitting a value is the same as
- specifying 1 and negating number_pad is the same as specifying
- 0. (Settings 2 and 4 are for compatibility with MS-DOS or old
+ For backward compatibility, omitting a value is the same as
+ specifying 1 and negating number_pad is the same as specifying
+ 0. (Settings 2 and 4 are for compatibility with MS-DOS or old
PC Hack; in addition to the different behavior for `5', `Alt-5'
acts as `G' and `Alt-0' acts as `I'. Setting -1 is to accommo-
- date some QWERTZ keyboards which have the location of the `y'
- and `z' keys swapped.) When moving by numbers, to enter a
+ date some QWERTZ keyboards which have the location of the `y'
+ and `z' keys swapped.) When moving by numbers, to enter a
count prefix for those commands which accept one (such as "12s"
- to search twelve times), precede it with the letter `n'
+ to search twelve times), precede it with the letter `n'
("n12s").
packorder
- Specify the order to list object types in (default
+ Specify the order to list object types in (default
"")[%?+!=/(*`0_"). The value of this option should be a string
containing the symbols for the various object types. Any omit-
ted types are filled in at the end from the previous order.
paranoid_confirmation
- A space separated list of specific situations where alternate
- prompting is desired. The default is paranoid_confirma-
+ A space separated list of specific situations where alternate
+ prompting is desired. The default is paranoid_confirma-
tion:pray.
- Confirm - for any prompts which are set to require "yes"
- rather than `y', also require "no" to reject in-
- stead of accepting any non-yes response as no
- quit - require "yes" rather than `y' to confirm quitting
- the game or switching into non-scoring explore
+ Confirm - for any prompts which are set to require "yes"
+ rather than `y', also require "no" to reject
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+ instead of accepting any non-yes response as no
+ quit - require "yes" rather than `y' to confirm quitting
+ the game or switching into non-scoring explore
mode;
- die - require "yes" rather than `y' to confirm dying
- (not useful in normal play; applies to explore
+ die - require "yes" rather than `y' to confirm dying
+ (not useful in normal play; applies to explore
mode);
- bones - require "yes" rather than `y' to confirm saving
+ bones - require "yes" rather than `y' to confirm saving
bones data when dying in debug mode;
- attack - require "yes" rather than `y' to confirm attack-
+ attack - require "yes" rather than `y' to confirm attack-
ing a peaceful monster;
wand-break - require "yes" rather than `y' to confirm breaking
a wand;
- eating - require "yes" rather than `y' to confirm whether
+ eating - require "yes" rather than `y' to confirm whether
to continue eating;
Were-change - require "yes" rather than `y' to confirm changing
- form due to lycanthropy when hero has polymorph
+ form due to lycanthropy when hero has polymorph
control;
- pray - require `y' to confirm an attempt to pray rather
+ pray - require `y' to confirm an attempt to pray rather
than immediately praying; on by default;
- Remove - require selection from inventory for `R' and `T'
- commands even when wearing just one applicable
+ Remove - require selection from inventory for `R' and `T'
+ commands even when wearing just one applicable
item.
all - turn on all of the above.
- By default, the pray choice is enabled, the others disabled.
- To disable it without setting any of the other choices, use
+ By default, the pray choice is enabled, the others disabled.
+ To disable it without setting any of the other choices, use
"paranoid_confirmation:none". To keep it enabled while setting
- any of the others, include it in the list, such as "para-
+ any of the others, include it in the list, such as "para-
noid_confirmation:attack pray Remove".
perm_invent
- If true, always display your current inventory in a window.
- This only makes sense for windowing system interfaces that im-
+ If true, always display your current inventory in a window.
+ This only makes sense for windowing system interfaces that im-
plement this feature.
petattr
- Specifies one or more text highlighting attributes to use when
- showing pets on the map. Effectively a superset of the
+ Specifies one or more text highlighting attributes to use when
+ showing pets on the map. Effectively a superset of the
hilite_pet boolean option. Curses interface only; value is one
or more of the following letters.
l - Left line indicator
r - Right line indicator
- Some of those choices might not work, particularly the final
- three, depending upon terminal hardware or terminal emulation
- software.
-
+ Some of those choices might not work, particularly the final
+ three, depending upon terminal hardware or terminal emulation
-
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- Currently multiple highlight-style letters can be combined by
- simply stringing them together (for example, "bk"), but in the
- future they might require being separated by plus signs (such
- as "b+k", which works already). When using the `n' choice, it
- should be specified on its own, not in combination with any of
+ software.
+
+ Currently multiple highlight-style letters can be combined by
+ simply stringing them together (for example, "bk"), but in the
+ future they might require being separated by plus signs (such
+ as "b+k", which works already). When using the `n' choice, it
+ should be specified on its own, not in combination with any of
the other letters.
pettype
- Specify the type of your initial pet, if you are playing a
- character class that uses multiple types of pets; or choose to
- have no initial pet at all. Possible values are "cat", "dog",
+ Specify the type of your initial pet, if you are playing a
+ character class that uses multiple types of pets; or choose to
+ have no initial pet at all. Possible values are "cat", "dog",
"horse", and "none". If the choice is not allowed for the role
- you are currently playing, it will be silently ignored. For
- example, "horse" will only be honored when playing a knight.
+ you are currently playing, it will be silently ignored. For
+ example, "horse" will only be honored when playing a knight.
Cannot be set with the `O' command.
pickup_burden
- When you pick up an item that would exceed this encumbrance
- level (Unencumbered, Burdened, streSsed, straiNed, overTaxed,
- or overLoaded), you will be asked if you want to continue.
+ When you pick up an item that would exceed this encumbrance
+ level (Unencumbered, Burdened, streSsed, straiNed, overTaxed,
+ or overLoaded), you will be asked if you want to continue.
(Default `S'). Persistent.
pickup_thrown
- If this option is on and autopickup is also on, try to pick up
- things that you threw, even if they aren't in pickup_types or
+ If this option is on and autopickup is also on, try to pick up
+ things that you threw, even if they aren't in pickup_types or
match an autopickup exception. Default is on. Persistent.
pickup_types
Specify the object types to be picked up when autopickup is on.
- Default is all types. You can use autopickup_exception config-
- uration file lines to further refine autopickup behavior. Per-
- sistent.
+ Default is all types. Persistent.
+
+ The value is a list of object symbols, such as pickup_types:$?!
+ to pick up gold, scrolls, and potions. You can use autopick-
+ up_exception configuration file lines to further refine au-
+ topickup behavior.
+
+ There is no way to set pickup_types to "none". (Setting it to
+ an empty value reverts to "all".) If you want to avoid auto-
+ matically picking up any types of items but do want to have au-
+ topickup on in order to have autopickup_exception settings con-
+ trol what you do and don't pick up, you can set pickup_types to
+ `.'. That is the type symbol for venom and you won't come
+ across any venom items so won't unintentionally pick such up.
pile_limit
When walking across a pile of objects on the floor, threshold
size will always be at least that big; default value is 5.
Persistent.
+
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+
+
+
+
+
+ NetHack Guidebook 69
+
+
+
playmode
Values are "normal", "explore", or "debug". Allows selection
of explore mode (also known as discovery mode) or debug mode
pushweapon
Using the `w' (wield) command when already wielding something
-
-
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
-
-
-
-
-
- NetHack Guidebook 69
-
-
-
pushes the old item into your alternate weapon slot (default
off). Likewise for the `a' (apply) command if it causes the
applied item to become wielded. Persistent.
the map. Not all ports support run length compression. It has
no effect on reading an existing save file.
- runmode
- Controls the amount of screen updating for the map window when
- engaged in multi-turn movement (running via shift+direction or
- control+direction and so forth, or via the travel command or
- mouse click). The possible values are:
- teleport - update the map after movement has finished;
- run - update the map after every seven or so steps;
- walk - update the map after each step;
- crawl - like walk, but pause briefly after each step.
- This option only affects the game's screen display, not the
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack Guidebook 70
- NetHack Guidebook 70
+ runmode
+ Controls the amount of screen updating for the map window when
+ engaged in multi-turn movement (running via shift+direction or
+ control+direction and so forth, or via the travel command or
+ mouse click). The possible values are:
+ teleport - update the map after movement has finished;
+ run - update the map after every seven or so steps;
+ walk - update the map after each step;
+ crawl - like walk, but pause briefly after each step.
- actual results of moving. The default is "run"; versions prior
+ This option only affects the game's screen display, not the ac-
+ tual results of moving. The default is "run"; versions prior
to 3.4.1 used "teleport" only. Whether or not the effect is
noticeable will depend upon the window port used or on the type
of terminal. Persistent.
sortdiscoveries
Controls the sorting behavior for the output of the `\' and ``'
- commands. Persistent.
- The possible values are:
- o - list object types by class, in discovery order within each
- class; default;
- s - list object types by sortloot classification: by class, by
- sub-class within class for classes which have substantial
- groupings (like helmets, boots, gloves, and so forth for
- armor), with object types partly-discovered via assigned
- name coming before fully identified types;
- c - list by class, alphabetically within each class;
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack Guidebook 71
- NetHack Guidebook 71
+ commands. Persistent.
+ The possible values are:
+ o - list object types by class, in discovery order within each
+ class; default;
+ s - list object types by sortloot classification: by class, by
+ sub-class within class for classes which have substantial
+ groupings (like helmets, boots, gloves, and so forth for
+ armor), with object types partly-discovered via assigned
+ name coming before fully identified types;
+ c - list by class, alphabetically within each class;
a - list alphabetically across all classes.
Can be interactively set via the `O' command or via using the
alert notification messages about feature changes for that and
prior versions (for example "suppress_alert:3.3.1").
- symset
- This option may be used to select one of the named symbol sets
- found within "symbols" to alter the symbols displayed on the
- screen. Use "symset:default" to explicitly select the default
- symbols.
- time
- Show the elapsed game time in turns on bottom line (default
- off). Persistent.
- timed_delay
- When pausing momentarily for display effect, such as with
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack Guidebook 72
- NetHack Guidebook 72
+ symset
+ This option may be used to select one of the named symbol sets
+ found within "symbols" to alter the symbols displayed on the
+ screen. Use "symset:default" to explicitly select the default
+ symbols.
+ time
+ Show the elapsed game time in turns on bottom line (default
+ off). Persistent.
- explosions and moving objects, use a timer rather than sending
+ timed_delay
+ When pausing momentarily for display effect, such as with ex-
+ plosions and moving objects, use a timer rather than sending
extra characters to the screen. (Applies to "tty" interface
only; "X11" interface always uses a timer based delay. The de-
fault is on if configured into the program.) Persistent.
n - none (no coordinates shown) [default].
The whatis_coord option is also used with the "/m", "/M", "/o",
- and "/O" sub-commands of `/', where the "none" setting is over-
- ridden with "map".
- whatis_filter
- When getting a location on the map, and using the keys to cycle
- through next and previous targets, allows filtering the possi-
- ble targets.
- n - no filtering [default]
- v - in view only
- a - in same area only
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack Guidebook 73
- NetHack Guidebook 73
+ and "/O" sub-commands of `/', where the "none" setting is over-
+ ridden with "map".
+ whatis_filter
+ When getting a location on the map, and using the keys to cycle
+ through next and previous targets, allows filtering the possi-
+ ble targets.
+ n - no filtering [default]
+ v - in view only
+ a - in same area only
The area-filter tries to be slightly predictive--if you're
standing on a doorway, it will consider the area on the side of
the contents. Not all ports support zero-comp compression. It
has no effect on reading an existing save file.
+
+
+
+
+
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+
+
+
+
+
+ NetHack Guidebook 74
+
+
+
9.5. Window Port Customization options
Here are explanations of the various options that are used
are dynamic and can be specified during the game with the `O'
command.
-
-
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
-
-
-
-
-
- NetHack Guidebook 74
-
-
-
align_message
Where to align or place the message window (top, bottom, left,
or right)
font_status
If NetHack can, it should use a font by the chosen name for the
+
+
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+
+
+
+
+
+ NetHack Guidebook 75
+
+
+
status window.
font_text
font_size_message
If NetHack can, it should use this size font for the message
-
-
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
-
-
-
-
-
- NetHack Guidebook 75
-
-
-
window.
font_size_status
so enhances performance of the tile graphics, but uses more
memory. (default on). Cannot be set with the `O' command.
+
+
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+
+
+
+
+
+ NetHack Guidebook 76
+
+
+
scroll_amount
If NetHack can, it should scroll the display by this number of
cells when the hero reaches the scroll_margin.
games for the player to choose from at game startup, if it can.
Not all ports support this option.
-
-
-
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
-
-
-
-
-
- NetHack Guidebook 76
-
-
-
softkeyboard
Display an onscreen keyboard. Handhelds are most likely to
support this option.
Number of lines for traditional below-the-map status display.
Acceptable values are 2 and 3 (default is 2).
- For 3, the tty interface moves some fields around and mainly
- shows status conditions on their own line. A display capable
- of showing at least 25 lines is recommended. The value can be
- toggled back and forth during the game with the `O' command.
+ When set to 3, the tty interface moves some fields around and
+ mainly shows status conditions on their own line. A display
+ capable of showing at least 25 lines is recommended. The value
+ can be toggled back and forth during the game with the `O' com-
+ mand.
- The curses interface does likewise if the align_status option
- is set to top or bottom but ignores statuslines when set to
+ The curses interface does likewise if the align_status option
+ is set to top or bottom but ignores statuslines when set to
left or right.
- The Qt interface already displays more than 3 lines for status
- so uses the statuslines value differently. A value of 3 ren-
- ders status in the Qt interface's original format, with the
+ The Qt interface already displays more than 3 lines for status
+ so uses the statuslines value differently. A value of 3 ren-
+ ders status in the Qt interface's original format, with the
status window spread out vertically. A value of 2 makes status
be slightly condensed, moving some fields to different lines to
- eliminate one whole line, reducing the height needed. For Qt,
- statuslines can only be set in the configuration file or via
- NETHACKOPTIONS, not with the `O' command.
+ eliminate one whole line, reducing the height needed.
term_cols and
term_rows
- Curses interface only. Number of columns and rows to use for
+ Curses interface only. Number of columns and rows to use for
the display. Curses will attempt to resize to the values spec-
- ified but will settle for smaller sizes if they are too big.
+ ified but will settle for smaller sizes if they are too big.
Default is the current window size.
tile_file
- Specify the name of an alternative tile file to override the
+ Specify the name of an alternative tile file to override the
default.
- tile_height
- Specify the preferred height of each tile in a tile capable
- port.
- tile_width
- Specify the preferred width of each tile in a tile capable port
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- tiled_map
- If NetHack can, it should display the map using tiles graphics
- rather than simple characters (letters and punctuation, possi-
- bly augmented by line-drawing symbols). Setting tiled_map to
- True forces ascii_map to be False.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack Guidebook 77
- NetHack Guidebook 77
+ tile_height
+ Specify the preferred height of each tile in a tile capable
+ port.
+ tile_width
+ Specify the preferred width of each tile in a tile capable port
+ tiled_map
+ If NetHack can, it should display the map using tiles graphics
+ rather than simple characters (letters and punctuation, possi-
+ bly augmented by line-drawing symbols). Setting tiled_map to
+ True forces ascii_map to be False.
use_darkgray
Use bold black instead of blue for black glyphs (TTY only).
use_inverse
- If NetHack can, it should display inverse when the game speci-
+ If NetHack can, it should display inverse when the game speci-
fies it.
vary_msgcount
- If NetHack can, it should display this number of messages at a
+ If NetHack can, it should display this number of messages at a
time in the message window.
windowborders
- Whether to draw boxes around the map, status area, message
- area, and persistent inventory window if enabled. Curses in-
+ Whether to draw boxes around the map, status area, message
+ area, and persistent inventory window if enabled. Curses in-
terface only. Acceptable values are
0 - off, never show borders
1 - on, always show borders
2 - auto, on if display is at least (24+2)x(80+2) (default)
- (The 26x82 size threshold for `2' refers to number of rows and
- columns of the display. A width of at least 110 columns
+ (The 26x82 size threshold for `2' refers to number of rows and
+ columns of the display. A width of at least 110 columns
(80+2+26+2) is needed for align_status set to left or right.)
windowcolors
- If NetHack can, it should display windows with the specified
+ If NetHack can, it should display windows with the specified
foreground/background colors. Windows GUI only. The format is
OPTION=windowcolors:wintype foreground/background
- where wintype is one of "menu", "message", "status", or
- "text", and foreground and background are colors, either a hexa-
- decimal \'#rrggbb', one of the named colors (black, red, green,
- brown, blue, magenta, cyan, orange, brightgreen, yellow, bright-
- blue, brightmagenta, brightcyan, white, trueblack, gray, purple,
- silver, maroon, fuchsia, lime, olive, navy, teal, aqua), or one
- of Windows UI colors (activeborder, activecaption, appworkspace,
- background, btnface, btnshadow, btntext, captiontext, graytext,
- greytext, highlight, highlighttext, inactiveborder, inactivecap-
- tion, menu, menutext, scrollbar, window, windowframe, window-
+ where wintype is one of "menu", "message", "status", or
+ "text", and foreground and background are colors, either a hexa-
+ decimal \'#rrggbb', one of the named colors (black, red, green,
+ brown, blue, magenta, cyan, orange, brightgreen, yellow, bright-
+ blue, brightmagenta, brightcyan, white, trueblack, gray, purple,
+ silver, maroon, fuchsia, lime, olive, navy, teal, aqua), or one
+ of Windows UI colors (activeborder, activecaption, appworkspace,
+ background, btnface, btnshadow, btntext, captiontext, graytext,
+ greytext, highlight, highlighttext, inactiveborder, inactivecap-
+ tion, menu, menutext, scrollbar, window, windowframe, window-
text).
- wraptext
- If NetHack can, it should wrap long lines of text if they don't
- fit in the visible area of the window.
-
- 9.6. Platform-specific Customization options
- Here are explanations of options that are used by specific
- platforms or ports to customize and change the port behavior.
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- altkeyhandler
- Select an alternate keystroke handler dll to load (Win32 tty
- NetHack only). The name of the handler is specified without
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack Guidebook 78
- NetHack Guidebook 78
+ wraptext
+ If NetHack can, it should wrap long lines of text if they don't
+ fit in the visible area of the window.
+ 9.6. Platform-specific Customization options
+ Here are explanations of options that are used by specific
+ platforms or ports to customize and change the port behavior.
+ altkeyhandler
+ Select an alternate keystroke handler dll to load (Win32 tty
+ NetHack only). The name of the handler is specified without
the .dll extension and without any path information. Cannot be
set with the `O' command.
altmeta
On other (non-Amiga) systems where this option is available, it
- can be set to tell NetHack to convert a two character sequence
- beginning with ESC into a meta-shifted version of the second
+ can be set to tell NetHack to convert a two character sequence
+ beginning with ESC into a meta-shifted version of the second
character (default off).
- This conversion is only done for commands, not for other input
+ This conversion is only done for commands, not for other input
prompts. Note that typing one or more digits as a count prefix
- prior to a command--preceded by n if the number_pad option is
+ prior to a command--preceded by n if the number_pad option is
set--is also subject to this conversion, so attempting to abort
- the count by typing ESC will leave NetHack waiting for another
- character to complete the two character sequence. Type a sec-
- ond ESC to finish cancelling such a count. At other prompts a
+ the count by typing ESC will leave NetHack waiting for another
+ character to complete the two character sequence. Type a sec-
+ ond ESC to finish cancelling such a count. At other prompts a
single ESC suffices.
BIOS
Use BIOS calls to update the screen display quickly and to read
- the keyboard (allowing the use of arrow keys to move) on ma-
- chines with an IBM PC compatible BIOS ROM (default off, OS/2,
+ the keyboard (allowing the use of arrow keys to move) on ma-
+ chines with an IBM PC compatible BIOS ROM (default off, OS/2,
PC, and ST NetHack only).
flush
(default on, Mac NetHack only).
rawio
- Force raw (non-cbreak) mode for faster output and more bullet-
- proof input (MS-DOS sometimes treats `^P' as a printer toggle
- without it) (default off, OS/2, PC, and ST NetHack only).
- Note: DEC Rainbows hang if this is turned on. Cannot be set
- with the `O' command.
-
- subkeyvalue
- (Win32 tty NetHack only). May be used to alter the value of
- keystrokes that the operating system returns to NetHack to help
- compensate for international keyboard issues. OPTIONS=subkey-
- value:171/92 will return 92 to NetHack, if 171 was originally
- going to be returned. You can use multiple subkeyvalue assign-
- ments in the configuration file if needed. Cannot be set with
- the `O' command.
+ Force raw (non-cbreak) mode for faster output and more bullet-
+ proof input (MS-DOS sometimes treats `^P' as a printer toggle
+ without it) (default off, OS/2, PC, and ST NetHack only).
+ Note: DEC Rainbows hang if this is turned on. Cannot be set
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack Guidebook 79
- NetHack Guidebook 79
+ with the `O' command.
+ subkeyvalue
+ (Win32 tty NetHack only). May be used to alter the value of
+ keystrokes that the operating system returns to NetHack to help
+ compensate for international keyboard issues. OPTIONS=subkey-
+ value:171/92 will return 92 to NetHack, if 171 was originally
+ going to be returned. You can use multiple subkeyvalue assign-
+ ments in the configuration file if needed. Cannot be set with
+ the `O' command.
video
Set the video mode used (PC NetHack only). Values are "autode-
- tect", "default", "vga", or "vesa". Setting "vesa" will cause
+ tect", "default", "vga", or "vesa". Setting "vesa" will cause
the game to display tiles, using the full capability of the VGA
- hardware. Setting "vga" will cause the game to display tiles,
- fixed at 640x480 in 16 colors, a mode that is compatible with
- all VGA hardware. Third party tilesets will probably not work.
- Setting "autodetect" attempts "vesa", then "vga", and finally
- sets "default" if neither of those modes works. Cannot be set
+ hardware. Setting "vga" will cause the game to display tiles,
+ fixed at 640x480 in 16 colors, a mode that is compatible with
+ all VGA hardware. Third party tilesets will probably not work.
+ Setting "autodetect" attempts "vesa", then "vga", and finally
+ sets "default" if neither of those modes works. Cannot be set
with the `O' command.
video_height
- Set the VGA mode resolution height (MS-DOS only, with
+ Set the VGA mode resolution height (MS-DOS only, with
video:vesa)
video_width
- Set the VGA mode resolution width (MS-DOS only, with
+ Set the VGA mode resolution width (MS-DOS only, with
video:vesa)
videocolors
- Set the color palette for PC systems using NO_TERMS (default
- 4-2-6-1-5-3-15-12-10-14-9-13-11, (PC NetHack only). The order
- of colors is red, green, brown, blue, magenta, cyan,
- bright.white, bright.red, bright.green, yellow, bright.blue,
- bright.magenta, and bright.cyan. Cannot be set with the `O'
+ Set the color palette for PC systems using NO_TERMS (default
+ 4-2-6-1-5-3-15-12-10-14-9-13-11, (PC NetHack only). The order
+ of colors is red, green, brown, blue, magenta, cyan,
+ bright.white, bright.red, bright.green, yellow, bright.blue,
+ bright.magenta, and bright.cyan. Cannot be set with the `O'
command.
videoshades
Set the intensity level of the three gray scales available (de-
fault dark normal light, PC NetHack only). If the game display
- is difficult to read, try adjusting these scales; if this does
- not correct the problem, try !color. Cannot be set with the
+ is difficult to read, try adjusting these scales; if this does
+ not correct the problem, try !color. Cannot be set with the
`O' command.
9.7. Regular Expressions
- Regular expressions are normally POSIX extended regular ex-
- pressions. It is possible to compile NetHack without regular ex-
- pression support on a platform where there is no regular expres-
- sion library. While this is not true of any modern platform, if
- your NetHack was built this way, patterns are instead glob pat-
+ Regular expressions are normally POSIX extended regular ex-
+ pressions. It is possible to compile NetHack without regular ex-
+ pression support on a platform where there is no regular expres-
+ sion library. While this is not true of any modern platform, if
+ your NetHack was built this way, patterns are instead glob pat-
terns. This applies to Autopickup exceptions, Message types, Menu
colors, and User sounds.
- 9.8. Configuring Autopickup Exceptions
-
- You can further refine the behavior of the autopickup option
- beyond what is available through the pickup_types option.
-
- By placing autopickup_exception lines in your configuration
- file, you can define patterns to be checked when the game is
- about to autopickup something.
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack Guidebook 80
- NetHack Guidebook 80
+ 9.8. Configuring Autopickup Exceptions
+ You can further refine the behavior of the autopickup option
+ beyond what is available through the pickup_types option.
+ By placing autopickup_exception lines in your configuration
+ file, you can define patterns to be checked when the game is
+ about to autopickup something.
autopickup_exception
- Sets an exception to the pickup_types option. The autopick-
- up_exception option should be followed by a regular expression
- to be used as a pattern to match against the singular form of
+ Sets an exception to the pickup_types option. The autopick-
+ up_exception option should be followed by a regular expression
+ to be used as a pattern to match against the singular form of
the description of an object at your location.
- In addition, some characters are treated specially if they oc-
+ In addition, some characters are treated specially if they oc-
cur as the first character in the pattern, specifically:
< - always pickup an object that matches rest of pattern;
> - never pickup an object that matches rest of pattern.
- The autopickup_exception rules are processed in the order in
- which they appear in your configuration file, thus allowing a
+ The autopickup_exception rules are processed in the order in
+ which they appear in your configuration file, thus allowing a
later rule to override an earlier rule.
- Exceptions can be set with the `O' command, but because they
- are not included in your configuration file, they won't be in
- effect if you save and then restore your game. autopickup_ex-
+ Exceptions can be set with the `O' command, but because they
+ are not included in your configuration file, they won't be in
+ effect if you save and then restore your game. autopickup_ex-
ception rules and not saved with the game.
Here are some examples:
autopickup_exception=">*corpse"
autopickup_exception=">* cursed*"
- The first example above will result in autopickup of any
- type of arrow. The second example results in the exclusion of
- any corpse from autopickup. The last example results in the ex-
+ The first example above will result in autopickup of any
+ type of arrow. The second example results in the exclusion of
+ any corpse from autopickup. The last example results in the ex-
clusion of items known to be cursed from autopickup.
9.9. Changing Key Bindings
- It is possible to change the default key bindings of some
- special commands, menu accelerator keys, and extended commands,
- by using BIND stanzas in the configuration file. Format is key,
- followed by the command to bind to, separated by a colon. The
+ It is possible to change the default key bindings of some
+ special commands, menu accelerator keys, and extended commands,
+ by using BIND stanzas in the configuration file. Format is key,
+ followed by the command to bind to, separated by a colon. The
key can be a single character ("x"), a control key ("^X", "C-x"),
a meta key ("M-x"), or a three-digit decimal ASCII code.
For example:
- BIND=^X:getpos.autodescribe
- BIND={:menu_first_page
- BIND=v:loot
-
- Extended command keys
- You can bind multiple keys to the same extended command. Un-
- bind a key by using "nothing" as the extended command to bind
- to. You can also bind the "<esc>", "<enter>", and "<space>"
- keys.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+ BIND=^X:getpos.autodescribe
+ BIND={:menu_first_page
+ BIND=v:loot
+
+ Extended command keys
+ You can bind multiple keys to the same extended command. Un-
+ bind a key by using "nothing" as the extended command to bind
+ to. You can also bind the "<esc>", "<enter>", and "<space>"
+ keys.
+
Menu accelerator keys
- The menu control or accelerator keys can also be rebound via
- OPTIONS lines in the configuration file. You cannot bind ob-
+ The menu control or accelerator keys can also be rebound via
+ OPTIONS lines in the configuration file. You cannot bind ob-
ject symbols into menu accelerators.
Special command keys
- Below are the special commands you can rebind. Some of them
- can be bound to same keys with no problems, others are in the
- same "context", and if bound to same keys, only one of those
- commands will be available. Special command can only be bound
+ Below are the special commands you can rebind. Some of them
+ can be bound to same keys with no problems, others are in the
+ same "context", and if bound to same keys, only one of those
+ commands will be available. Special command can only be bound
to a single key.
count
- Prefix key to start a count, to repeat a command this many
+ Prefix key to start a count, to repeat a command this many
times. With number_pad only. Default is `n'.
doinv
Prefix key to force fight a direction. Default is `F'.
fight.numpad
- Prefix key to force fight a direction. With number_pad only.
+ Prefix key to force fight a direction. With number_pad only.
Default is `-'.
getdir.help
- When asked for a direction, the key to show the help. Default
+ When asked for a direction, the key to show the help. Default
is `?'.
getdir.self
- When asked for a direction, the key to target yourself. De-
+ When asked for a direction, the key to target yourself. De-
fault is `.'.
getdir.self2
- When asked for a direction, the key to target yourself. De-
+ When asked for a direction, the key to target yourself. De-
fault is `s'.
getpos.autodescribe
fault is `#'.
getpos.all.next
- When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest inter-
- esting thing. Default is `a'.
+ When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest
- getpos.all.prev
- When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest
- interesting thing. Default is `A'.
- getpos.door.next
- When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest door
- or doorway. Default is `d'.
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack Guidebook 82
- NetHack Guidebook 82
+ interesting thing. Default is `a'.
+ getpos.all.prev
+ When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest
+ interesting thing. Default is `A'.
+ getpos.door.next
+ When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest door
+ or doorway. Default is `d'.
getpos.door.prev
- When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest
+ When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest
door or doorway. Default is `D'.
getpos.help
- When asked for a location, the key to show help. Default is
+ When asked for a location, the key to show help. Default is
`?'.
getpos.mon.next
- When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest mon-
+ When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest mon-
ster. Default is `m'.
getpos.mon.prev
- When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest
+ When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest
monster. Default is `M'.
getpos.obj.next
- When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest ob-
+ When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest ob-
ject. Default is `o'.
getpos.obj.prev
- When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest
+ When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest
object. Default is `O'.
getpos.menu
- When asked for a location, and using one of the next or previ-
- ous keys to cycle through targets, toggle showing a menu in-
+ When asked for a location, and using one of the next or previ-
+ ous keys to cycle through targets, toggle showing a menu in-
stead. Default is `!'.
getpos.moveskip
- When asked for a location, and using the shifted movement keys
- or meta-digit keys to fast-move around, move by skipping the
+ When asked for a location, and using the shifted movement keys
+ or meta-digit keys to fast-move around, move by skipping the
same glyphs instead of by 8 units. Default is `*'.
getpos.filter
When asked for a location, change the filtering mode when using
- one of the next or previous keys to cycle through targets.
- Toggles between no filtering, in view only, and in the same
+ one of the next or previous keys to cycle through targets.
+ Toggles between no filtering, in view only, and in the same
area only. Default is `"'.
getpos.pick
- When asked for a location, the key to choose the location, and
- possibly ask for more info. Default is `.'.
-
- getpos.pick.once
When asked for a location, the key to choose the location, and
- skip asking for more info. Default is `,'.
+ possibly ask for more info. Default is `.'.
- getpos.pick.quick
- When asked for a location, the key to choose the location, skip
- asking for more info, and exit the location asking loop. De-
- fault is `;'.
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack Guidebook 83
- NetHack Guidebook 83
+ getpos.pick.once
+ When asked for a location, the key to choose the location, and
+ skip asking for more info. Default is `,'.
+ getpos.pick.quick
+ When asked for a location, the key to choose the location, skip
+ asking for more info, and exit the location asking loop. De-
+ fault is `;'.
getpos.pick.verbose
- When asked for a location, the key to choose the location, and
+ When asked for a location, the key to choose the location, and
show more info without asking. Default is `:'.
getpos.self
fault is `@'.
getpos.unexplored.next
- When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest unex-
+ When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest unex-
plored location. Default is `x'.
getpos.unexplored.prev
- When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest
+ When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest
unexplored location. Default is `X'.
getpos.valid
- When asked for a location, the key to go to show valid target
+ When asked for a location, the key to go to show valid target
locations. Default is `$'.
getpos.valid.next
- When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest valid
+ When asked for a location, the key to go to next closest valid
location. Default is `z'.
getpos.valid.prev
- When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest
+ When asked for a location, the key to go to previous closest
valid location. Default is `Z'.
nopickup
Key to redraw the screen. Default is `^R'.
redraw.numpad
- Key to redraw the screen. With number_pad only. Default is
+ Key to redraw the screen. With number_pad only. Default is
`^L'.
repeat
reqmenu
Prefix key to request menu from some commands. Default is `m'.
- run
- Prefix key to run towards a direction. Default is `G'.
- run.nopickup
- Prefix key to run towards a direction without picking up items
- on the way. Default is `M'.
- run.numpad
- Prefix key to run towards a direction. With number_pad only.
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack Guidebook 84
- NetHack Guidebook 84
+ run
+ Prefix key to run towards a direction. Default is `G'.
+
+ run.nopickup
+ Prefix key to run towards a direction without picking up items
+ on the way. Default is `M'.
+ run.numpad
+ Prefix key to run towards a direction. With number_pad only.
- Default is `5' when number_pad is set to 1 or 3, otherwise
+ Default is `5' when number_pad is set to 1 or 3, otherwise
`M-5' when it is set to 2 or 4.
rush
rush.numpad
Prefix key to rush towards a direction. With number_pad only.
- Default is `M-5' when number_pad is set to 1 or 3, otherwise
+ Default is `M-5' when number_pad is set to 1 or 3, otherwise
`5' when it is set to 2 or 4.
9.10. Configuring Message Types
You can change the way the messages are shown in the message
area, when the message matches a user-defined pattern.
- In general, the configuration file entries to describe the
+ In general, the configuration file entries to describe the
message types look like this: MSGTYPE=type "pattern"
type - how the message should be shown;
show - show message normally;
hide - never show the message;
stop - wait for user with more-prompt;
- norep - show the message once, but not again if no other mes-
+ norep - show the message once, but not again if no other mes-
sage is shown in between.
- Here's an example of message types using NetHack's internal
+ Here's an example of message types using NetHack's internal
pattern matching facility:
MSGTYPE=stop "You feel hungry."
MSGTYPE=hide "You displaced *."
- specifies that whenever a message "You feel hungry" is shown,
- the user is prompted with more-prompt, and a message matching
+ specifies that whenever a message "You feel hungry" is shown,
+ the user is prompted with more-prompt, and a message matching
"You displaced <something>." is not shown at all.
- The order of the defined MSGTYPE lines is important; the last
- matching rule is used. Put the general case first, exceptions
- below them.
- 9.11. Configuring Menu Colors
- Some platforms allow you to define colors used in menu lines
- when the line matches a user-defined pattern. At this time the
- tty, curses, win32tty and win32gui interfaces support this.
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack Guidebook 85
- NetHack Guidebook 85
+ The order of the defined MSGTYPE lines is important; the last
+ matching rule is used. Put the general case first, exceptions
+ below them.
+ 9.11. Configuring Menu Colors
+ Some platforms allow you to define colors used in menu lines
+ when the line matches a user-defined pattern. At this time the
+ tty, curses, win32tty and win32gui interfaces support this.
- In general, the configuration file entries to describe the
+ In general, the configuration file entries to describe the
menu color mappings look like this:
MENUCOLOR="pattern"=color&attribute
pattern - the pattern to match;
- color - the color to use for lines matching the pat-
+ color - the color to use for lines matching the pat-
tern;
- attribute - the attribute to use for lines matching the
- pattern. The attribute is optional, and if
+ attribute - the attribute to use for lines matching the
+ pattern. The attribute is optional, and if
left out, you must also leave out the preced-
- ing ampersand. If no attribute is defined,
+ ing ampersand. If no attribute is defined,
no attribute is used.
The pattern should be a regular expression.
- Allowed colors are black, red, green, brown, blue, magenta,
- cyan, gray, orange, light-green, yellow, light-blue, light-ma-
- genta, light-cyan, and white. And no-color, the default fore-
- ground color, which isn't necessarily the same as any of the
+ Allowed colors are black, red, green, brown, blue, magenta,
+ cyan, gray, orange, light-green, yellow, light-blue, light-ma-
+ genta, light-cyan, and white. And no-color, the default fore-
+ ground color, which isn't necessarily the same as any of the
other colors.
- Allowed attributes are none, bold, dim, underline, blink, and
- inverse. "Normal" is a synonym for "none". Note that the
+ Allowed attributes are none, bold, dim, underline, blink, and
+ inverse. "Normal" is a synonym for "none". Note that the
platform used may interpret the attributes any way it wants.
- Here's an example of menu colors using NetHack's internal pat-
+ Here's an example of menu colors using NetHack's internal pat-
tern matching facility:
MENUCOLOR="* blessed *"=green
MENUCOLOR="* cursed *"=red
MENUCOLOR="* cursed *(being worn)"=red&underline
- specifies that any menu line with " blessed " contained in it
- will be shown in green color, lines with " cursed " will be
- shown in red, and lines with " cursed " followed by "(being
- worn)" on the same line will be shown in red color and under-
+ specifies that any menu line with " blessed " contained in it
+ will be shown in green color, lines with " cursed " will be
+ shown in red, and lines with " cursed " followed by "(being
+ worn)" on the same line will be shown in red color and under-
lined. You can have multiple MENUCOLOR entries in your config-
- uration file, and the last MENUCOLOR line that matches a menu
+ uration file, and the last MENUCOLOR line that matches a menu
line will be used for the line.
Note that if you intend to have one or more color specifica-
- tions match " uncursed ", you will probably want to turn the im-
+ tions match " uncursed ", you will probably want to turn the im-
plicit_uncursed option off so that all items known to be uncursed
- are actually displayed with the "uncursed" description.
- 9.12. Configuring User Sounds
-
- Some platforms allow you to define sound files to be played
- when a message that matches a user-defined pattern is delivered
- to the message window. At this time the Qt port and the win32tty
- and win32gui ports support the use of user sounds.
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack Guidebook 86
- NetHack Guidebook 86
+ are actually displayed with the "uncursed" description.
+ 9.12. Configuring User Sounds
+ Some platforms allow you to define sound files to be played
+ when a message that matches a user-defined pattern is delivered
+ to the message window. At this time the Qt port and the win32tty
+ and win32gui ports support the use of user sounds.
- The following configuration file entries are relevant to
+ The following configuration file entries are relevant to
mapping user sounds to messages:
SOUNDDIR
The directory that houses the sound files to be played.
SOUND
- An entry that maps a sound file to a user-specified message
- pattern. Each SOUND entry is broken down into the following
+ An entry that maps a sound file to a user-specified message
+ pattern. Each SOUND entry is broken down into the following
parts:
MESG - message window mapping (the only one supported in
3.6);
pattern - the pattern to match;
sound file - the sound file to play;
- volume - the volume to be set while playing the sound
+ volume - the volume to be set while playing the sound
file;
- sound index - optional; the index corresponding to a sound
+ sound index - optional; the index corresponding to a sound
file.
The pattern should be a POSIX extended regular expression.
9.13. Configuring Status Hilites
Your copy of NetHack may have been compiled with support for
- "Status Hilites". If so, you can customize your game display by
+ "Status Hilites". If so, you can customize your game display by
setting thresholds to change the color or appearance of fields in
the status display.
OPTION=hilite_status:field-name/behavior/color&attributes
- For example, the following line in your configuration file
- will cause the hitpoints field to display in the color red if
+ For example, the following line in your configuration file
+ will cause the hitpoints field to display in the color red if
your hitpoints drop to or below a threshold of 30%:
OPTION=hilite_status:hitpoints/<=30%/red/normal
(That example is actually specifying red&normal for <=30% and no-
color&normal for >30%.)
- For another example, the following line in your configura-
- tion file will cause wisdom to be displayed red if it drops and
+ For another example, the following line in your configura-
+ tion file will cause wisdom to be displayed red if it drops and
green if it rises:
- OPTION=hilite_status:wisdom/down/red/up/green
- Allowed colors are black, red, green, brown, blue, magenta,
- cyan, gray, orange, light-green, yellow, light-blue, light-magen-
- ta, light-cyan, and white. And "no-color", the default fore-
- ground color on the display, which is not necessarily the same as
- black or white or any of the other colors.
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
-
+ NetHack Guidebook 87
- NetHack Guidebook 87
+ OPTION=hilite_status:wisdom/down/red/up/green
+ Allowed colors are black, red, green, brown, blue, magenta,
+ cyan, gray, orange, light-green, yellow, light-blue, light-magen-
+ ta, light-cyan, and white. And "no-color", the default fore-
+ ground color on the display, which is not necessarily the same as
+ black or white or any of the other colors.
- Allowed attributes are none, bold, dim, underline, blink,
- and inverse. "Normal" is a synonym for "none"; they should not
+ Allowed attributes are none, bold, dim, underline, blink,
+ and inverse. "Normal" is a synonym for "none"; they should not
be used in combination with any of the other attributes.
To specify both a color and an attribute, use `&' to combine
- them. To specify multiple attributes, use `+' to combine those.
+ them. To specify multiple attributes, use `+' to combine those.
For example: "magenta&inverse+dim".
- Note that the display may substitute or ignore particular
- attributes depending upon its capabilities, and in general may
- interpret the attributes any way it wants. For example, on some
+ Note that the display may substitute or ignore particular
+ attributes depending upon its capabilities, and in general may
+ interpret the attributes any way it wants. For example, on some
display systems a request for bold might yield blink or vice ver-
sa. On others, issuing an attribute request while another is al-
- ready set up will replace the earlier attribute rather than com-
- bine with it. Since NetHack issues attribute requests sequen-
+ ready set up will replace the earlier attribute rather than com-
+ bine with it. Since NetHack issues attribute requests sequen-
tially (at least with the tty interface) rather than all at once,
the only way a situation like that can be controlled is to speci-
fy just one attribute.
- You can adjust the appearance of the following status
+ You can adjust the appearance of the following status
fields:
title dungeon-level experience-level
strength gold experience
charisma armor-class condition
alignment score
- The pseudo-field "characteristics" can be used to set all six
- of Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, and Cha at once. "HD" is "hit
- dice", an approximation of experience level displayed when
- polymorphed. "experience", "time", and "score" are condition-
+ The pseudo-field "characteristics" can be used to set all six
+ of Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, and Cha at once. "HD" is "hit
+ dice", an approximation of experience level displayed when
+ polymorphed. "experience", "time", and "score" are condition-
ally displayed depending upon your other option settings.
- Instead of a behavior, "condition" takes the following condi-
- tion flags: stone, slime, strngl, foodpois, termill, blind,
- deaf, stun, conf, hallu, lev, fly, and ride. You can use "ma-
- jor_troubles" as an alias for stone through termill, "mi-
+ Instead of a behavior, "condition" takes the following condi-
+ tion flags: stone, slime, strngl, foodpois, termill, blind,
+ deaf, stun, conf, hallu, lev, fly, and ride. You can use "ma-
+ jor_troubles" as an alias for stone through termill, "mi-
nor_troubles" for blind through hallu, "movement" for lev, fly,
and ride, and "all" for every condition.
Allowed behaviors are "always", "up", "down", "changed", a per-
centage or absolute number threshold, or text to match against.
- * "always" will set the default attributes for that field.
- * "up", "down" set the field attributes for when the field
- value changes upwards or downwards. This attribute times
- out after statushilites turns.
- * "changed" sets the field attribute for when the field val-
- ue changes. This attribute times out after statushilites
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack Guidebook 88
- NetHack Guidebook 88
+ * "always" will set the default attributes for that field.
+ * "up", "down" set the field attributes for when the field
+ value changes upwards or downwards. This attribute times
+ out after statushilites turns.
- turns. (If a field has both a "changed" rule and an "up"
- or "down" rule which matches a change in the field's val-
+ * "changed" sets the field attribute for when the field val-
+ ue changes. This attribute times out after statushilites
+ turns. (If a field has both a "changed" rule and an "up"
+ or "down" rule which matches a change in the field's val-
ue, the "up" or "down" one takes precedence.)
- * percentage sets the field attribute when the field value
- matches the percentage. It is specified as a number be-
- tween 0 and 100, followed by `%' (percent sign). If the
- percentage is prefixed with `<=' or `>=', it also matches
- when value is below or above the percentage. Use prefix
- `<' or `>' to match when strictly below or above. (The
- numeric limit is relaxed slightly for those: >-1% and
- <101% are allowed.) Only four fields support percentage
- rules. Percentages for "hitpoints" and "power" are
- straightforward; they're based on the corresponding maxi-
- mum field. Percentage highlight rules are also allowed
+ * percentage sets the field attribute when the field value
+ matches the percentage. It is specified as a number be-
+ tween 0 and 100, followed by `%' (percent sign). If the
+ percentage is prefixed with `<=' or `>=', it also matches
+ when value is below or above the percentage. Use prefix
+ `<' or `>' to match when strictly below or above. (The
+ numeric limit is relaxed slightly for those: >-1% and
+ <101% are allowed.) Only four fields support percentage
+ rules. Percentages for "hitpoints" and "power" are
+ straightforward; they're based on the corresponding maxi-
+ mum field. Percentage highlight rules are also allowed
for "experience level" and "experience points" (valid when
the showexp option is enabled). For those, the percentage
is based on the progress from the start of the current ex-
perience level to the start of the next level. So if lev-
- el 2 starts at 20 points and level 3 starts at 40 points,
- having 30 points is 50% and 35 points is 75%. 100% is
- unattainable for experience because you'll gain a level
+ el 2 starts at 20 points and level 3 starts at 40 points,
+ having 30 points is 50% and 35 points is 75%. 100% is
+ unattainable for experience because you'll gain a level
and the calculations will be reset for that new level, but
- a rule for =100% is allowed and matches the special case
+ a rule for =100% is allowed and matches the special case
of being exactly 1 experience point short of the next lev-
el.
- * absolute value sets the attribute when the field value
- matches that number. The number must be 0 or higher, ex-
- cept for "armor-class' which allows negative values, and
- may optionally be preceded by `='. If the number is pre-
- ceded by `<=' or `>=' instead, it also matches when value
- is below or above. If the prefix is `<' or `>', only
+ * absolute value sets the attribute when the field value
+ matches that number. The number must be 0 or higher, ex-
+ cept for "armor-class' which allows negative values, and
+ may optionally be preceded by `='. If the number is pre-
+ ceded by `<=' or `>=' instead, it also matches when value
+ is below or above. If the prefix is `<' or `>', only
match when strictly above or below.
* text match sets the attribute when the field value matches
- the text. Text matches can only be used for "alignment",
- "carrying-capacity", "hunger", "dungeon-level", and "ti-
- tle". For title, only the role's rank title is tested;
+ the text. Text matches can only be used for "alignment",
+ "carrying-capacity", "hunger", "dungeon-level", and "ti-
+ tle". For title, only the role's rank title is tested;
the character's name is ignored.
- The in-game options menu can help you determine the correct
+ The in-game options menu can help you determine the correct
syntax for a configuration file.
- The whole feature can be disabled by setting option sta-
+ The whole feature can be disabled by setting option sta-
tushilites to 0.
- Example hilites:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+ Example hilites:
+
OPTION=hilite_status: gold/up/yellow/down/brown
OPTION=hilite_status: characteristics/up/green/down/red
OPTION=hilite_status: hitpoints/100%/gray&normal
NetHack can load entire symbol sets from the symbol file.
- The options that are used to select a particular symbol set
+ The options that are used to select a particular symbol set
from the symbol file are:
symset
Set the name of the symbol set that you want to load.
roguesymset
- Set the name of the symbol set that you want to load for dis-
+ Set the name of the symbol set that you want to load for dis-
play on the rogue level.
- You can also override one or more symbols using the SYMBOLS
- and ROGUESYMBOLS configuration file options. Symbols are speci-
+ You can also override one or more symbols using the SYMBOLS
+ and ROGUESYMBOLS configuration file options. Symbols are speci-
fied as name:value pairs. Note that NetHack escape-processes the
- value string in conventional C fashion. This means that \ is a
- prefix to take the following character literally. Thus \ needs
- to be represented as \\. The special prefix form \m switches on
- the meta bit in the symbol value, and the ^ prefix causes the
+ value string in conventional C fashion. This means that \ is a
+ prefix to take the following character literally. Thus \ needs
+ to be represented as \\. The special prefix form \m switches on
+ the meta bit in the symbol value, and the ^ prefix causes the
following character to be treated as a control character.
NetHack Symbols
B S_bat (bat or bird)
^ S_bear_trap (bear trap)
- S_blcorn (bottom left corner)
- b S_blob (blob)
- + S_book (spellbook)
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+ b S_blob (blob)
+ + S_book (spellbook)
) S_boomleft (boomerang open left)
( S_boomright (boomerang open right)
` S_boulder (boulder)
. S_hodbridge (horizontal lowered drawbridge)
| S_hodoor (open door in horizontal wall)
^ S_hole (hole)
- @ S_human (human or elf)
- h S_humanoid (humanoid)
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+ @ S_human (human or elf)
+ h S_humanoid (humanoid)
- S_hwall (horizontal wall)
. S_ice (ice)
i S_imp (imp or minor demon)
s S_spider (arachnid or centipede)
^ S_spiked_pit (spiked pit)
^ S_squeaky_board (squeaky board)
- 0 S_ss1 (magic shield 1 of 4)
- # S_ss2 (magic shield 2 of 4)
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+ 0 S_ss1 (magic shield 1 of 4)
+ # S_ss2 (magic shield 2 of 4)
@ S_ss3 (magic shield 3 of 4)
* S_ss4 (magic shield 4 of 4)
^ S_statue_trap (statue trap)
x S_xan (xan or other extraordinary insect)
X S_xorn (xorn)
Y S_yeti (apelike creature)
- Z S_zombie (zombie)
- z S_zruty (zruty)
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+ Z S_zombie (zombie)
+ z S_zruty (zruty)
S_pet_override (any pet if ACCESSIBILITY=1 is set)
S_hero_override (hero if ACCESSIBILITY=1 is set)
Notes:
* Several symbols in this table appear to be blank. They are the
- space character, except for S_pet_override and S_hero_override
- which don't have any default value and can only be used if en-
+ space character, except for S_pet_override and S_hero_override
+ which don't have any default value and can only be used if en-
abled in the "sysconf" file.
- * S_rock is misleadingly named; rocks and stones use S_gem.
- Statues and boulders are the rock being referred to, but since
- version 3.6.0, statues are displayed as the monster they de-
- pict. So S_rock is only used for boulders and not used at all
+ * S_rock is misleadingly named; rocks and stones use S_gem.
+ Statues and boulders are the rock being referred to, but since
+ version 3.6.0, statues are displayed as the monster they de-
+ pict. So S_rock is only used for boulders and not used at all
if overridden by the more specific S_boulder.
9.15. Configuring NetHack for Play by the Blind
- NetHack can be set up to use only standard ASCII characters
- for making maps of the dungeons. This makes the MS-DOS versions
- of NetHack completely accessible to the blind who use speech
- and/or Braille access technologies. Players will require a good
- working knowledge of their screen-reader's review features, and
- will have to know how to navigate horizontally and vertically
- character by character. They will also find the search capabili-
- ties of their screen-readers to be quite valuable. Be certain to
- examine this Guidebook before playing so you have an idea what
- the screen layout is like. You'll also need to be able to locate
- the PC cursor. It is always where your character is located.
- Merely searching for an @-sign will not always find your charac-
+ NetHack can be set up to use only standard ASCII characters
+ for making maps of the dungeons. This makes the MS-DOS versions
+ of NetHack completely accessible to the blind who use speech
+ and/or Braille access technologies. Players will require a good
+ working knowledge of their screen-reader's review features, and
+ will have to know how to navigate horizontally and vertically
+ character by character. They will also find the search capabili-
+ ties of their screen-readers to be quite valuable. Be certain to
+ examine this Guidebook before playing so you have an idea what
+ the screen layout is like. You'll also need to be able to locate
+ the PC cursor. It is always where your character is located.
+ Merely searching for an @-sign will not always find your charac-
ter since there are other humanoids represented by the same sign.
- Your screen-reader should also have a function which gives you
- the row and column of your review cursor and the PC cursor.
- These co-ordinates are often useful in giving players a better
+ Your screen-reader should also have a function which gives you
+ the row and column of your review cursor and the PC cursor.
+ These co-ordinates are often useful in giving players a better
sense of the overall location of items on the screen.
- NetHack can also be compiled with support for sending the
- game messages to an external program, such as a text-to-speech
- synthesizer. If the "#version" extended command shows "external
- program as a message handler", your NetHack has been compiled
+ NetHack can also be compiled with support for sending the
+ game messages to an external program, such as a text-to-speech
+ synthesizer. If the "#version" extended command shows "external
+ program as a message handler", your NetHack has been compiled
with the capability. When compiling NetHack from source on Linux
- and other POSIX systems, define MSGHANDLER to enable it. To use
- the capability, set the environment variable NETHACK_MSGHANDLER
+ and other POSIX systems, define MSGHANDLER to enable it. To use
+ the capability, set the environment variable NETHACK_MSGHANDLER
to an executable, which will be executed with the game message as
the program's only parameter.
- While it is not difficult for experienced users to edit the
- defaults.nh file to accomplish this, novices may find this task
+ While it is not difficult for experienced users to edit the
+ defaults.nh file to accomplish this, novices may find this task
somewhat daunting. Included within the "symbols" file of all of-
ficial distributions of NetHack is a symset called NHAccess. Se-
- lecting that symset in your configuration file will cause the
- game to run in a manner accessible to the blind. After you have
- gained some experience with the game and with editing files, you
- may want to alter settings via SYMBOLS= and ROGUESYMBOLS= in your
+ lecting that symset in your configuration file will cause the
+ game to run in a manner accessible to the blind. After you have
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
+ gained some experience with the game and with editing files, you
+ may want to alter settings via SYMBOLS= and ROGUESYMBOLS= in your
configuration file to better suit your preferences. See the pre-
- vious section for the special symbols S_pet_override to force a
- consistent symbol for all pets and S_hero_override to force a
- unique symbol for the player character if accessibility is en-
+ vious section for the special symbols S_pet_override to force a
+ consistent symbol for all pets and S_hero_override to force a
+ unique symbol for the player character if accessibility is en-
abled in the sysconf file.
- The most crucial settings to make the game more accessible
+ The most crucial settings to make the game more accessible
are:
symset:NHAccess
Load a symbol set appropriate for use by blind players.
roguesymset:NHAccess
- Load a symbol set for the rogue level that is appropriate for
+ Load a symbol set for the rogue level that is appropriate for
use by blind players.
menustyle:traditional
Show menus on a cleared screen and aligned to the left edge.
number_pad
- A lot of speech access programs use the number-pad to review
+ A lot of speech access programs use the number-pad to review
the screen. If this is the case, disable the number_pad option
and use the traditional Rogue-like commands.
autodescribe
- Automatically describe the terrain under the cursor when tar-
+ Automatically describe the terrain under the cursor when tar-
geting.
mention_walls
- Give feedback messages when walking towards a wall or when
+ Give feedback messages when walking towards a wall or when
travel command was interrupted.
whatis_coord:compass
- When targeting with cursor, describe the cursor position with
+ When targeting with cursor, describe the cursor position with
coordinates relative to your character.
whatis_filter:area
- When targeting with cursor, filter possible locations so only
- those in the same area (eg. same room, or same corridor) are
+ When targeting with cursor, filter possible locations so only
+ those in the same area (eg. same room, or same corridor) are
considered.
whatis_moveskip
- When targeting with cursor and using fast-move, skip the same
+ When targeting with cursor and using fast-move, skip the same
glyphs instead of moving 8 units at a time.
nostatus_updates
- Prevent updates to the status lines at the bottom of the
- screen, if your screen-reader reads those lines. The same in-
+ Prevent updates to the status lines at the bottom of the
+ screen, if your screen-reader reads those lines. The same in-
formation can be seen via the "#attributes" command.
-
-
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
9.16. Global Configuration for System Administrators
- If NetHack is compiled with the SYSCF option, a system ad-
- ministrator should set up a global configuration; this is a file
+ If NetHack is compiled with the SYSCF option, a system ad-
+ ministrator should set up a global configuration; this is a file
in the same format as the traditional per-user configuration file
(see above). This file should be named sysconf and placed in the
- same directory as the other NetHack support files. The options
+ same directory as the other NetHack support files. The options
recognized in this file are listed below. Any option not set us-
- es a compiled-in default (which may not be appropriate for your
+ es a compiled-in default (which may not be appropriate for your
system).
- WIZARDS = A space-separated list of user names who are allowed
+ WIZARDS = A space-separated list of user names who are allowed
to play in debug mode (commonly referred to as wizard mode). A
value of a single asterisk (*) allows anyone to start a game in
debug mode.
SHELLERS = A list of users who are allowed to use the shell es-
cape command (!). The syntax is the same as WIZARDS.
- EXPLORERS = A list of users who are allowed to use the explore
+ EXPLORERS = A list of users who are allowed to use the explore
mode. The syntax is the same as WIZARDS.
MAXPLAYERS = Limit the maximum number of games that can be run-
ning at the same time.
SAVEFORMAT = A list of up to two save file formats separated by
- space. The first format in the list will written as well as
- read. The second format will be read only if no save file in
- the first format exists. Valid choices are "historical" for
- binary writing of entire structs, "lendian" for binary writing
- of each field in little-endian order, "ascii" for writing the
+ space. The first format in the list will written as well as
+ read. The second format will be read only if no save file in
+ the first format exists. Valid choices are "historical" for
+ binary writing of entire structs, "lendian" for binary writing
+ of each field in little-endian order, "ascii" for writing the
save file content in ascii text.
- BONESFORMAT = A list of up to two bones file formats separated
+ BONESFORMAT = A list of up to two bones file formats separated
by space. The first format in the list will written as well as
- read. The second format will be read only if no bones files in
+ read. The second format will be read only if no bones files in
the first format exist. Valid choices are "historical" for bi-
nary writing of entire structs, "lendian" for binary writing of
- each field in little-endian order, "ascii" for writing the
+ each field in little-endian order, "ascii" for writing the
bones file content in ascii text.
- SUPPORT = A string explaining how to get local support (no de-
+ SUPPORT = A string explaining how to get local support (no de-
fault value).
- RECOVER = A string explaining how to recover a game on this
+ RECOVER = A string explaining how to recover a game on this
system (no default value).
- SEDUCE = 0 or 1 to disable or enable, respectively, the SEDUCE
+ SEDUCE = 0 or 1 to disable or enable, respectively, the SEDUCE
option. When disabled, incubi and succubi behave like nymphs.
- CHECK_PLNAME = Setting this to 1 will make the EXPLORERS, WIZ-
+ CHECK_PLNAME = Setting this to 1 will make the EXPLORERS, WIZ-
ARDS, and SHELLERS check for the player name instead of the us-
er's login name.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
CHECK_SAVE_UID = 0 or 1 to disable or enable, respectively, the
- UID (used identification number) checking for save files (to
- verify that the user who is restoring is the same one who
+ UID (used identification number) checking for save files (to
+ verify that the user who is restoring is the same one who
saved).
The following options affect the score file:
ENTRYMAX = Maximum number of entries in the score file.
- POINTSMIN = Minimum number of points to get an entry in the
+ POINTSMIN = Minimum number of points to get an entry in the
score file.
- PERS_IS_UID = 0 or 1 to use user names or numeric userids, re-
+ PERS_IS_UID = 0 or 1 to use user names or numeric userids, re-
spectively, to identify unique people for the score file.
- MAX_STATUENAME_RANK = Maximum number of score file entries to
+ MAX_STATUENAME_RANK = Maximum number of score file entries to
use for random statue names (default is 10).
- ACCESSIBILITY = 0 or 1 to disable or enable, respectively, the
- ability for players to set S_pet_override and S_hero_override
+ ACCESSIBILITY = 0 or 1 to disable or enable, respectively, the
+ ability for players to set S_pet_override and S_hero_override
symbols in their configuration file.
- PORTABLE_DEVICE_PATHS = 0 or 1 Windows OS only, the game will
- look for all of its external files, and write to all of its
- output files in one place rather than at the standard loca-
+ PORTABLE_DEVICE_PATHS = 0 or 1 Windows OS only, the game will
+ look for all of its external files, and write to all of its
+ output files in one place rather than at the standard loca-
tions.
DUMPLOGFILE = A filename where the end-of-game dumplog is
- saved. Not defining this will prevent dumplog from being cre-
+ saved. Not defining this will prevent dumplog from being cre-
ated. Only available if your game is compiled with DUMPLOG. Al-
lows the following placeholders:
10. Scoring
- NetHack maintains a list of the top scores or scorers on
+ NetHack maintains a list of the top scores or scorers on
your machine, depending on how it is set up. In the latter case,
- each account on the machine can post only one non-winning score
- on this list. If you score higher than someone else on this
- list, or better your previous score, you will be inserted in the
- proper place under your current name. How many scores are kept
+ each account on the machine can post only one non-winning score
+ on this list. If you score higher than someone else on this
+ list, or better your previous score, you will be inserted in the
+ proper place under your current name. How many scores are kept
can also be set up when NetHack is compiled.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- Your score is chiefly based upon how much experience you
+ Your score is chiefly based upon how much experience you
gained, how much loot you accumulated, how deep you explored, and
how the game ended. If you quit the game, you escape with all of
- your gold intact. If, however, you get killed in the Mazes of
+ your gold intact. If, however, you get killed in the Mazes of
Menace, the guild will only hear about 90% of your gold when your
- corpse is discovered (adventurers have been known to collect
- finder's fees). So, consider whether you want to take one last
- hit at that monster and possibly live, or quit and stop with
- whatever you have. If you quit, you keep all your gold, but if
+ corpse is discovered (adventurers have been known to collect
+ finder's fees). So, consider whether you want to take one last
+ hit at that monster and possibly live, or quit and stop with
+ whatever you have. If you quit, you keep all your gold, but if
you swing and live, you might find more.
- If you just want to see what the current top players/games
+ If you just want to see what the current top players/games
list is, you can type nethack -s all on most versions.
11. Explore mode
- NetHack is an intricate and difficult game. Novices might
+ NetHack is an intricate and difficult game. Novices might
falter in fear, aware of their ignorance of the means to survive.
Well, fear not. Your dungeon comes equipped with an "explore" or
- "discovery" mode that enables you to keep old save files and
- cheat death, at the paltry cost of not getting on the high score
+ "discovery" mode that enables you to keep old save files and
+ cheat death, at the paltry cost of not getting on the high score
list.
- There are two ways of enabling explore mode. One is to
- start the game with the -X command-line switch or with the play-
- mode:explore option. The other is to issue the "#exploremode"
- extended command while already playing the game. Starting a new
+ There are two ways of enabling explore mode. One is to
+ start the game with the -X command-line switch or with the play-
+ mode:explore option. The other is to issue the "#exploremode"
+ extended command while already playing the game. Starting a new
game in explore mode provides your character with a wand of wish-
- ing in initial inventory; switching during play does not. The
- other benefits of explore mode are left for the trepid reader to
+ ing in initial inventory; switching during play does not. The
+ other benefits of explore mode are left for the trepid reader to
discover.
11.1. Debug mode
Debug mode, also known as wizard mode, is undocumented aside
- from this brief description and the various "debug mode only"
- commands listed among the command descriptions. It is intended
+ from this brief description and the various "debug mode only"
+ commands listed among the command descriptions. It is intended
for tracking down problems within the program rather than to pro-
- vide god-like powers to your character, and players who attempt
- debugging are expected to figure out how to use it themselves.
- It is initiated by starting the game with the -D command-line
+ vide god-like powers to your character, and players who attempt
+ debugging are expected to figure out how to use it themselves.
+ It is initiated by starting the game with the -D command-line
switch or with the playmode:debug option.
- For some systems, the player must be logged in under a par-
- ticular user name to be allowed to use debug mode; for others,
- the hero must be given a particular character name (but may be
- any role; there's no connection between "wizard mode" and the
- Wizard role). Attempting to start a game in debug mode when not
- allowed or not available will result in falling back to explore
+ For some systems, the player must be logged in under a par-
+ ticular user name to be allowed to use debug mode; for others,
+ the hero must be given a particular character name (but may be
+ any role; there's no connection between "wizard mode" and the
+ Wizard role). Attempting to start a game in debug mode when not
+ allowed or not available will result in falling back to explore
mode instead.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
12. Credits
- The original hack game was modeled on the Berkeley UNIX
- rogue game. Large portions of this document were shamelessly
- cribbed from A Guide to the Dungeons of Doom, by Michael C. Toy
- and Kenneth C. R. C. Arnold. Small portions were adapted from
+ The original hack game was modeled on the Berkeley UNIX
+ rogue game. Large portions of this document were shamelessly
+ cribbed from A Guide to the Dungeons of Doom, by Michael C. Toy
+ and Kenneth C. R. C. Arnold. Small portions were adapted from
Further Exploration of the Dungeons of Doom, by Ken Arromdee.
NetHack is the product of literally scores of people's work.
- Main events in the course of the game development are described
+ Main events in the course of the game development are described
below:
- Jay Fenlason wrote the original Hack, with help from Kenny
+ Jay Fenlason wrote the original Hack, with help from Kenny
Woodland, Mike Thome, and Jon Payne.
- Andries Brouwer did a major re-write while at Stichting
+ Andries Brouwer did a major re-write while at Stichting
Mathematisch Centrum (now Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica), trans-
- forming Hack into a very different game. He published the Hack
- source code for use on UNIX systems by posting that to Usenet
+ forming Hack into a very different game. He published the Hack
+ source code for use on UNIX systems by posting that to Usenet
newsgroup net.sources (later renamed comp.sources) releasing ver-
sion 1.0 in December of 1984, then versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, and fi-
- nally 1.0.3 in July of 1985. Usenet newsgroup net.games.hack
- (later renamed rec.games.hack, eventually replaced by
+ nally 1.0.3 in July of 1985. Usenet newsgroup net.games.hack
+ (later renamed rec.games.hack, eventually replaced by
rec.games.roguelike.nethack) was created for discussing it.
- Don G. Kneller ported Hack 1.0.3 to Microsoft C and MS-DOS,
- producing PC HACK 1.01e, added support for DEC Rainbow graphics
- in version 1.03g, and went on to produce at least four more ver-
+ Don G. Kneller ported Hack 1.0.3 to Microsoft C and MS-DOS,
+ producing PC HACK 1.01e, added support for DEC Rainbow graphics
+ in version 1.03g, and went on to produce at least four more ver-
sions (3.0, 3.2, 3.51, and 3.6; note that these are old Hack ver-
sion numbers, not contemporary NetHack ones).
- R. Black ported PC HACK 3.51 to Lattice C and the Atari
+ R. Black ported PC HACK 3.51 to Lattice C and the Atari
520/1040ST, producing ST Hack 1.03.
Mike Stephenson merged these various versions back together,
- incorporating many of the added features, and produced NetHack
- version 1.4 in 1987. He then coordinated a cast of thousands in
+ incorporating many of the added features, and produced NetHack
+ version 1.4 in 1987. He then coordinated a cast of thousands in
enhancing and debugging NetHack 1.4 and released NetHack versions
- 2.2 and 2.3. Like Hack, they were released by posting their
- source code to Usenet where they remained available in various
- archives accessible via ftp and uucp after expiring from the
+ 2.2 and 2.3. Like Hack, they were released by posting their
+ source code to Usenet where they remained available in various
+ archives accessible via ftp and uucp after expiring from the
newsgroup.
- Later, Mike coordinated a major re-write of the game, head-
- ing a team which included Ken Arromdee, Jean-Christophe Collet,
- Steve Creps, Eric Hendrickson, Izchak Miller, Eric S. Raymond,
- John Rupley, Mike Threepoint, and Janet Walz, to produce NetHack
+ Later, Mike coordinated a major re-write of the game, head-
+ ing a team which included Ken Arromdee, Jean-Christophe Collet,
+ Steve Creps, Eric Hendrickson, Izchak Miller, Eric S. Raymond,
+ John Rupley, Mike Threepoint, and Janet Walz, to produce NetHack
3.0c.
- NetHack 3.0 was ported to the Atari by Eric R. Smith, to
- OS/2 by Timo Hakulinen, and to VMS by David Gentzel. The three
+ NetHack 3.0 was ported to the Atari by Eric R. Smith, to
+ OS/2 by Timo Hakulinen, and to VMS by David Gentzel. The three
of them and Kevin Darcy later joined the main NetHack Development
Team to produce subsequent revisions of 3.0.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- Olaf Seibert ported NetHack 2.3 and 3.0 to the Amiga. Norm
- Meluch, Stephen Spackman and Pierre Martineau designed overlay
- code for PC NetHack 3.0. Johnny Lee ported NetHack 3.0 to the
- Macintosh. Along with various other Dungeoneers, they continued
- to enhance the PC, Macintosh, and Amiga ports through the later
+ Olaf Seibert ported NetHack 2.3 and 3.0 to the Amiga. Norm
+ Meluch, Stephen Spackman and Pierre Martineau designed overlay
+ code for PC NetHack 3.0. Johnny Lee ported NetHack 3.0 to the
+ Macintosh. Along with various other Dungeoneers, they continued
+ to enhance the PC, Macintosh, and Amiga ports through the later
revisions of 3.0.
- Version 3.0 went through ten relatively rapidly released
- "patch-level" revisions. Versions at the time were known as 3.0
- for the base release and variously as "3.0a" through "3.0j",
- "3.0 patchlevel 1" through "3.0 patchlevel 10", or "3.0pl1"
+ Version 3.0 went through ten relatively rapidly released
+ "patch-level" revisions. Versions at the time were known as 3.0
+ for the base release and variously as "3.0a" through "3.0j",
+ "3.0 patchlevel 1" through "3.0 patchlevel 10", or "3.0pl1"
through "3.0pl10" rather than 3.0.0 and 3.0.1 through 3.0.10; the
three component numbering scheme began to be used with 3.1.0.
- Headed by Mike Stephenson and coordinated by Izchak Miller
- and Janet Walz, the NetHack Development Team which now included
- Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jean-Christophe Collet, Kevin Darcy,
- Matt Day, Timo Hakulinen, Steve Linhart, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin,
+ Headed by Mike Stephenson and coordinated by Izchak Miller
+ and Janet Walz, the NetHack Development Team which now included
+ Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jean-Christophe Collet, Kevin Darcy,
+ Matt Day, Timo Hakulinen, Steve Linhart, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin,
Eric Raymond, and Eric Smith undertook a radical revision of 3.0.
They re-structured the game's design, and re-wrote major parts of
- the code. They added multiple dungeons, a new display, special
- individual character quests, a new endgame and many other new
- features, and produced NetHack 3.1. Version 3.1.0 was released
+ the code. They added multiple dungeons, a new display, special
+ individual character quests, a new endgame and many other new
+ features, and produced NetHack 3.1. Version 3.1.0 was released
in January of 1993.
- Ken Lorber, Gregg Wonderly and Greg Olson, with help from
- Richard Addison, Mike Passaretti, and Olaf Seibert, developed
+ Ken Lorber, Gregg Wonderly and Greg Olson, with help from
+ Richard Addison, Mike Passaretti, and Olaf Seibert, developed
NetHack 3.1 for the Amiga.
- Norm Meluch and Kevin Smolkowski, with help from Carl Sche-
+ Norm Meluch and Kevin Smolkowski, with help from Carl Sche-
lin, Stephen Spackman, Steve VanDevender, and Paul Winner, ported
NetHack 3.1 to the PC.
Jon W{tte and Hao-yang Wang, with help from Ross Brown, Mike
- Engber, David Hairston, Michael Hamel, Jonathan Handler, Johnny
- Lee, Tim Lennan, Rob Menke, and Andy Swanson, developed NetHack
+ Engber, David Hairston, Michael Hamel, Jonathan Handler, Johnny
+ Lee, Tim Lennan, Rob Menke, and Andy Swanson, developed NetHack
3.1 for the Macintosh, porting it for MPW. Building on their de-
velopment, Bart House added a Think C port.
Timo Hakulinen ported NetHack 3.1 to OS/2. Eric Smith port-
- ed NetHack 3.1 to the Atari. Pat Rankin, with help from Joshua
- Delahunty, was responsible for the VMS version of NetHack 3.1.
+ ed NetHack 3.1 to the Atari. Pat Rankin, with help from Joshua
+ Delahunty, was responsible for the VMS version of NetHack 3.1.
Michael Allison ported NetHack 3.1 to Windows NT.
- Dean Luick, with help from David Cohrs, developed NetHack
+ Dean Luick, with help from David Cohrs, developed NetHack
3.1 for X11. It drew the map as text rather than graphically but
- included nh10.bdf, an optionally used custom X11 font which has
- tiny images in place of letters and punctuation, a precursor of
- tiles. Those images don't extend to individual monster and ob-
- ject types, just replacements for monster and object classes (so
- one custom image for all "a" insects and another for all "[" ar-
+ included nh10.bdf, an optionally used custom X11 font which has
+ tiny images in place of letters and punctuation, a precursor of
+ tiles. Those images don't extend to individual monster and ob-
+ ject types, just replacements for monster and object classes (so
+ one custom image for all "a" insects and another for all "[" ar-
mor and so forth, not separate images for beetles and ants or for
cloaks and boots).
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- Warwick Allison wrote a graphically displayed version of
- NetHack for the Atari where the tiny pictures were described as
- "icons" and were distinct for specific types of monsters and ob-
+ Warwick Allison wrote a graphically displayed version of
+ NetHack for the Atari where the tiny pictures were described as
+ "icons" and were distinct for specific types of monsters and ob-
jects rather than just their classes. He contributed them to the
- NetHack Development Team which rechristened them "tiles", origi-
- nal usage which has subsequently been picked up by various other
- games. NetHack's tiles support was then implemented on other
- platforms (initially MS-DOS but eventually Windows, Qt, and X11
+ NetHack Development Team which rechristened them "tiles", origi-
+ nal usage which has subsequently been picked up by various other
+ games. NetHack's tiles support was then implemented on other
+ platforms (initially MS-DOS but eventually Windows, Qt, and X11
too).
The 3.2 NetHack Development Team, comprised of Michael Alli-
son, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Steve Creps, Kevin
Darcy, Timo Hakulinen, Steve Linhart, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Er-
- ic Smith, Mike Stephenson, Janet Walz, and Paul Winner, released
+ ic Smith, Mike Stephenson, Janet Walz, and Paul Winner, released
version 3.2.0 in April of 1996.
Version 3.2 marked the tenth anniversary of the formation of
- the development team. In a testament to their dedication to the
- game, all thirteen members of the original NetHack Development
- Team remained on the team at the start of work on that release.
- During the interval between the release of 3.1.3 and 3.2.0, one
- of the founding members of the NetHack Development Team, Dr.
- Izchak Miller, was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. That
- release of the game was dedicated to him by the development and
+ the development team. In a testament to their dedication to the
+ game, all thirteen members of the original NetHack Development
+ Team remained on the team at the start of work on that release.
+ During the interval between the release of 3.1.3 and 3.2.0, one
+ of the founding members of the NetHack Development Team, Dr.
+ Izchak Miller, was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. That
+ release of the game was dedicated to him by the development and
porting teams.
Version 3.2 proved to be more stable than previous versions.
- Many bugs were fixed, abuses eliminated, and game features tuned
+ Many bugs were fixed, abuses eliminated, and game features tuned
for better game play.
During the lifespan of NetHack 3.1 and 3.2, several enthusi-
- asts of the game added their own modifications to the game and
+ asts of the game added their own modifications to the game and
made these "variants" publicly available:
- Tom Proudfoot and Yuval Oren created NetHack++, which was
- quickly renamed NetHack-- when some people incorrectly assumed
- that it was a conversion of the C source code to C++. Working
- independently, Stephen White wrote NetHack Plus. Tom Proudfoot
+ Tom Proudfoot and Yuval Oren created NetHack++, which was
+ quickly renamed NetHack-- when some people incorrectly assumed
+ that it was a conversion of the C source code to C++. Working
+ independently, Stephen White wrote NetHack Plus. Tom Proudfoot
later merged NetHack Plus and his own NetHack-- to produce SLASH.
- Larry Stewart-Zerba and Warwick Allison improved the spell cast-
- ing system with the Wizard Patch. Warwick Allison also ported
+ Larry Stewart-Zerba and Warwick Allison improved the spell cast-
+ ing system with the Wizard Patch. Warwick Allison also ported
NetHack to use the Qt interface.
- Warren Cheung combined SLASH with the Wizard Patch to pro-
- duce Slash'EM, and with the help of Kevin Hugo, added more fea-
- tures. Kevin later joined the NetHack Development Team and in-
+ Warren Cheung combined SLASH with the Wizard Patch to pro-
+ duce Slash'EM, and with the help of Kevin Hugo, added more fea-
+ tures. Kevin later joined the NetHack Development Team and in-
corporated the best of these ideas into NetHack 3.3.
The final update to 3.2 was the bug fix release 3.2.3, which
- was released simultaneously with 3.3.0 in December 1999 just in
- time for the Year 2000. Because of the newer version, 3.2.3 was
- released as a source code patch only, without any ready-to-play
+ was released simultaneously with 3.3.0 in December 1999 just in
+ time for the Year 2000. Because of the newer version, 3.2.3 was
+ released as a source code patch only, without any ready-to-play
distribution for systems that usually had such.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
- (To anyone considering resurrecting an old version: all
- versions before 3.2.3 had a Y2K bug. The high scores file and
- the log file contained dates which were formatted using a two-
- digit year, and 1999's year 99 was followed by 2000's year 100.
- That got written out successfully but it unintentionally intro-
- duced an extra column in the file layout which prevented score
- entries from being read back in correctly, interfering with in-
- sertion of new high scores and with retrieval of old character
- names to use for random ghost and statue names in the current
+ (To anyone considering resurrecting an old version: all
+ versions before 3.2.3 had a Y2K bug. The high scores file and
+ the log file contained dates which were formatted using a two-
+ digit year, and 1999's year 99 was followed by 2000's year 100.
+ That got written out successfully but it unintentionally intro-
+ duced an extra column in the file layout which prevented score
+ entries from being read back in correctly, interfering with in-
+ sertion of new high scores and with retrieval of old character
+ names to use for random ghost and statue names in the current
game.)
- The 3.3 NetHack Development Team, consisting of Michael Al-
- lison, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Steve Creps,
- Kevin Darcy, Timo Hakulinen, Kevin Hugo, Steve Linhart, Ken Lor-
- ber, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Eric Smith, Mike Stephenson, Janet
- Walz, and Paul Winner, released 3.3.0 in December 1999 and 3.3.1
+ The 3.3 NetHack Development Team, consisting of Michael Al-
+ lison, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Steve Creps,
+ Kevin Darcy, Timo Hakulinen, Kevin Hugo, Steve Linhart, Ken Lor-
+ ber, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Eric Smith, Mike Stephenson, Janet
+ Walz, and Paul Winner, released 3.3.0 in December 1999 and 3.3.1
in August of 2000.
Version 3.3 offered many firsts. It was the first version to
- separate race and profession. The Elf class was removed in pref-
+ separate race and profession. The Elf class was removed in pref-
erence to an elf race, and the races of dwarves, gnomes, and orcs
- made their first appearance in the game alongside the familiar
- human race. Monk and Ranger roles joined Archeologists, Barbar-
- ians, Cavemen, Healers, Knights, Priests, Rogues, Samurai,
- Tourists, Valkyries and of course, Wizards. It was also the
- first version to allow you to ride a steed, and was the first
- version to have a publicly available web-site listing all the
- bugs that had been discovered. Despite that constantly growing
- bug list, 3.3 proved stable enough to last for more than a year
+ made their first appearance in the game alongside the familiar
+ human race. Monk and Ranger roles joined Archeologists, Barbar-
+ ians, Cavemen, Healers, Knights, Priests, Rogues, Samurai,
+ Tourists, Valkyries and of course, Wizards. It was also the
+ first version to allow you to ride a steed, and was the first
+ version to have a publicly available web-site listing all the
+ bugs that had been discovered. Despite that constantly growing
+ bug list, 3.3 proved stable enough to last for more than a year
and a half.
- The 3.4 NetHack Development Team initially consisted of
- Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Kevin
- Hugo, Ken Lorber, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Mike Stephenson, Janet
- Walz, and Paul Winner, with Warwick Allison joining just before
+ The 3.4 NetHack Development Team initially consisted of
+ Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Kevin
+ Hugo, Ken Lorber, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Mike Stephenson, Janet
+ Walz, and Paul Winner, with Warwick Allison joining just before
the release of NetHack 3.4.0 in March 2002.
- As with version 3.3, various people contributed to the game
+ As with version 3.3, various people contributed to the game
as a whole as well as supporting ports on the different platforms
that NetHack runs on:
Pat Rankin maintained 3.4 for VMS.
- Michael Allison maintained NetHack 3.4 for the MS-DOS plat-
+ Michael Allison maintained NetHack 3.4 for the MS-DOS plat-
form. Paul Winner and Yitzhak Sapir provided encouragement.
- Dean Luick, Mark Modrall, and Kevin Hugo maintained and en-
+ Dean Luick, Mark Modrall, and Kevin Hugo maintained and en-
hanced the Macintosh port of 3.4.
- Michael Allison, David Cohrs, Alex Kompel, Dion Nicolaas,
- and Yitzhak Sapir maintained and enhanced 3.4 for the Microsoft
+ Michael Allison, David Cohrs, Alex Kompel, Dion Nicolaas,
+ and Yitzhak Sapir maintained and enhanced 3.4 for the Microsoft
Windows platform. Alex Kompel contributed a new graphical inter-
- face for the Windows port. Alex Kompel also contributed a Win-
+ face for the Windows port. Alex Kompel also contributed a Win-
dows CE port for 3.4.1.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
Ron Van Iwaarden was the sole maintainer of NetHack for OS/2
- the past several releases. Unfortunately Ron's last OS/2 machine
- stopped working in early 2006. A great many thanks to Ron for
+ the past several releases. Unfortunately Ron's last OS/2 machine
+ stopped working in early 2006. A great many thanks to Ron for
keeping NetHack alive on OS/2 all these years.
- Janne Salmijarvi and Teemu Suikki maintained and enhanced
- the Amiga port of 3.4 after Janne Salmijarvi resurrected it for
+ Janne Salmijarvi and Teemu Suikki maintained and enhanced
+ the Amiga port of 3.4 after Janne Salmijarvi resurrected it for
3.3.1.
Christian "Marvin" Bressler maintained 3.4 for the Atari af-
The release of NetHack 3.4.3 in December 2003 marked the be-
ginning of a long release hiatus. 3.4.3 proved to be a remarkably
stable version that provided continued enjoyment by the community
- for more than a decade. The NetHack Development Team slowly and
- quietly continued to work on the game behind the scenes during
- the tenure of 3.4.3. It was during that same period that several
+ for more than a decade. The NetHack Development Team slowly and
+ quietly continued to work on the game behind the scenes during
+ the tenure of 3.4.3. It was during that same period that several
new variants emerged within the NetHack community. Notably
sporkhack by Derek S. Ray, unnethack by Patric Mueller, nitrohack
- and its successors originally by Daniel Thaler and then by Alex
- Smith, and Dynahack by Tung Nguyen. Some of those variants con-
- tinue to be developed, maintained, and enjoyed by the community
+ and its successors originally by Daniel Thaler and then by Alex
+ Smith, and Dynahack by Tung Nguyen. Some of those variants con-
+ tinue to be developed, maintained, and enjoyed by the community
to this day.
In September 2014, an interim snapshot of the code under de-
- velopment was released publicly by other parties. Since that
- code was a work-in-progress and had not gone through the process
- of debugging it as a suitable release, it was decided that the
- version numbers present on that code snapshot would be retired
- and never used in an official NetHack release. An announcement
+ velopment was released publicly by other parties. Since that
+ code was a work-in-progress and had not gone through the process
+ of debugging it as a suitable release, it was decided that the
+ version numbers present on that code snapshot would be retired
+ and never used in an official NetHack release. An announcement
was posted on the NetHack Development Team's official nethack.org
- website to that effect, stating that there would never be a
+ website to that effect, stating that there would never be a
3.4.4, 3.5, or 3.5.0 official release version.
- In January 2015, preparation began for the release of
+ In January 2015, preparation began for the release of
NetHack 3.6.
- At the beginning of development for what would eventually
- get released as 3.6.0, the NetHack Development Team consisted of
- Warwick Allison, Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs,
- Jessie Collet, Ken Lorber, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Mike Stephen-
- son, Janet Walz, and Paul Winner. In early 2015, ahead of the
+ At the beginning of development for what would eventually
+ get released as 3.6.0, the NetHack Development Team consisted of
+ Warwick Allison, Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs,
+ Jessie Collet, Ken Lorber, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Mike Stephen-
+ son, Janet Walz, and Paul Winner. In early 2015, ahead of the
release of 3.6.0, new members Sean Hunt, Pasi Kallinen, and Derek
S. Ray joined the NetHack Development Team.
Near the end of the development of 3.6.0, one of the signif-
- icant inspirations for many of the humorous and fun features
- found in the game, author Terry Pratchett, passed away. NetHack
+ icant inspirations for many of the humorous and fun features
+ found in the game, author Terry Pratchett, passed away. NetHack
3.6.0 introduced a tribute to him.
3.6.0 was released in December 2015, and merged work done by
- the development team since the release of 3.4.3 with some of the
+ the development team since the release of 3.4.3 with some of the
beloved community patches. Many bugs were fixed and some code was
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
restructured.
- The NetHack Development Team, as well as Steve VanDevender
+ The NetHack Development Team, as well as Steve VanDevender
and Kevin Smolkowski, ensured that NetHack 3.6 continued to oper-
ate on various UNIX flavors and maintained the X11 interface.
- Ken Lorber, Haoyang Wang, Pat Rankin, and Dean Luick main-
+ Ken Lorber, Haoyang Wang, Pat Rankin, and Dean Luick main-
tained the port of NetHack 3.6 for Mac OSX.
- Michael Allison, David Cohrs, Bart House, Pasi Kallinen,
- Alex Kompel, Dion Nicolaas, Derek S. Ray and Yitzhak Sapir main-
+ Michael Allison, David Cohrs, Bart House, Pasi Kallinen,
+ Alex Kompel, Dion Nicolaas, Derek S. Ray and Yitzhak Sapir main-
tained the port of NetHack 3.6 for Microsoft Windows.
- Pat Rankin attempted to keep the VMS port running for
+ Pat Rankin attempted to keep the VMS port running for
NetHack 3.6, hindered by limited access. Kevin Smolkowski has up-
- dated and tested it for the most recent version of OpenVMS (V8.4
+ dated and tested it for the most recent version of OpenVMS (V8.4
as of this writing) on Alpha and Integrity (aka Itanium aka IA64)
but not VAX.
- Ray Chason resurrected the MS-DOS port for 3.6 and contrib-
+ Ray Chason resurrected the MS-DOS port for 3.6 and contrib-
uted the necessary updates to the community at large.
- In late April 2018, several hundred bug fixes for 3.6.0 and
- some new features were assembled and released as NetHack 3.6.1.
+ In late April 2018, several hundred bug fixes for 3.6.0 and
+ some new features were assembled and released as NetHack 3.6.1.
The NetHack Development Team at the time of release of 3.6.1 con-
- sisted of Warwick Allison, Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee, David
- Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Pasi Kallinen, Ken Lorber, Dean Luick,
- Patric Mueller, Pat Rankin, Derek S. Ray, Alex Smith, Mike
+ sisted of Warwick Allison, Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee, David
+ Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Pasi Kallinen, Ken Lorber, Dean Luick,
+ Patric Mueller, Pat Rankin, Derek S. Ray, Alex Smith, Mike
Stephenson, Janet Walz, and Paul Winner.
In early May 2019, another 320 bug fixes along with some en-
- hancements and the adopted curses window port, were released as
+ hancements and the adopted curses window port, were released as
3.6.2.
- Bart House, who had contributed to the game as a porting
+ Bart House, who had contributed to the game as a porting
team participant for decades, joined the NetHack Development Team
in late May 2019.
- NetHack 3.6.3 was released on December 5, 2019 containing
+ NetHack 3.6.3 was released on December 5, 2019 containing
over 190 bug fixes to NetHack 3.6.2.
NetHack 3.6.4 was released on December 18, 2019 containing a
security fix and a few bug fixes.
- NetHack 3.6.5 was released on January 27, 2020 containing
+ NetHack 3.6.5 was released on January 27, 2020 containing
some security fixes and a small number of bug fixes.
NetHack 3.6.6 was released on March 8, 2020 containing a se-
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
12.1. SPECIAL THANKS
On behalf of the NetHack community, thank you very much once
- again to M. Drew Streib and Pasi Kallinen for providing a public
- NetHack server at nethack.alt.org. Thanks to Keith Simpson and
+ again to M. Drew Streib and Pasi Kallinen for providing a public
+ NetHack server at nethack.alt.org. Thanks to Keith Simpson and
Andy Thomson for hardfought.org. Thanks to all those unnamed dun-
- geoneers who invest their time and effort into annual NetHack
- tournaments such as Junethack, The November NetHack Tournament,
+ geoneers who invest their time and effort into annual NetHack
+ tournaments such as Junethack, The November NetHack Tournament,
and in days past, devnull.net (gone for now, but not forgotten).
- - - - - - - - - -
- From time to time, some depraved individual out there in
- netland sends a particularly intriguing modification to help out
+ From time to time, some depraved individual out there in
+ netland sends a particularly intriguing modification to help out
with the game. The NetHack Development Team sometimes makes note
- of the names of the worst of these miscreants in this, the list
+ of the names of the worst of these miscreants in this, the list
of Dungeoneers:
Adam Aronow J. Ali Harlow Mikko Juola
Alex Kompel Janet Walz Nathan Eady
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
Irina Rempt-Drijfhout Mike Passaretti
Izchak Miller Mike Stephenson
- Brand and product names are trademarks or registered trade-
+ Brand and product names are trademarks or registered trade-
marks of their respective holders.
- NetHack 3.7 December 19, 2020
+ NetHack 3.7 January 2, 2021
projects / nethack / commitdiff