Ubuntu Manpage: glhack - Exploring The Mazes of Menace

NAME

       glhack - Exploring The Mazes of Menace

SYNOPSIS

       glhack [options]

       glhack -s [options]

DESCRIPTION

       glHack  is  a  port  of the game NetHack, using hardware acceleration via OpenGL(R) to render the 2D tile
       graphics.  It uses LibSDL as the video and input library.  There is good support for  software  rendering
       as well.

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

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

       To  win  the  game  (as opposed to merely playing to beat other people's high scores) you must locate the
       Amulet of Yendor which is somewhere below the 20th level of the dungeon and get it out.  This is  not  an
       easy feat!

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

NETHACK OPTIONS

These are the standard options that NetHack supports.

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

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

-p profession
This can be used to determine the character role. You can specify either the male or female name
for the character role, or the first three characters of the role as an abbreviation. `@' and
random can also be used to mean "choose a random role".

-r race
Likewise this can be used to explicitly request that a race be chosen.

Note: Leaving out any of these characteristics will result in you being prompted during the game
startup for the information.

-@ Choose all (remaining) character attributes randomly. It doesn't affect any characteristics that
have already been specified by other means.

-s This option alone will print out the list of your scores on the current version. The -s may also
be followed by arguments -p and -r to print the scores of particular roles and races only. It may
also be followed by one or more player names to print the scores of the players mentioned, by
'all' to print out all scores, or by a number to print that many top scores.

-dec and -ibm
These command line options are equivalent to the decgraphics and ibmgraphics in-game options, and
are provided purely for convenience on systems supporting multiple types of terminals.

-D or -X
These option will start the game in a special non-scoring discovery mode. If the player is the
game administrator, -D will start in debugging (wizard) mode instead.

-n This option suppresses printing of any news from the game administrator.

-d This option is usually only useful to the game administrator. If it appears, it must be the first
argument, and supplies a directory which is to serve as the playground. It overrides the value
from NETHACKDIR, HACKDIR, or the directory specified by the game administrator during compilation
(usually /usr/lib/games/glhack). The playground must contain several auxiliary files such as help
files, the list of top scorers, and a subdirectory save where games are saved.

GLHACK OPTIONS

These are the command line options specific to glHack.

They all begin with a double dash (`--'). Values are normally separated from the option with a space,
like "--depth 32".

Alternatively, a value can be placed after an `=' sign without any spaces, like "--depth=32". This
should be used if the value begins with a minus (`-') sign, otherwise the number will be mistaken as a
new option.

Options that take a value are shown here with example values.

--mode 640x480
Specifies the video mode. Normally glHack will autodetect the mode, but using this option will
override that. The default value (when all else fails) is 800x600.

--depth 8
Video depth (bits per pixel). Possible values are 15, 16, 24 and 32, and 8 when using the
software renderer. The default value is autodetected.

--windowed
Play inside a window, rather than fullscreen.

--gamma=-2
Gamma correction value. Range is -5 to +5, where positive values make the screen brighter, and
negative values make it darker. Zero is the default (no adjustment).

--tileheight 64
Choose the tileset, which can be 16, 32 or 64. The default is 32. To get the Isometric 3D
tileset, use the value 64.

--fontsize 22
Choose the font size, out of 8, 14, 20 or 22. The default is 20. The given size will be used for
all text windows, overriding any wincap settings in the config file.

--help Show a help page.

--version
Show the current version. This can also be done within the game using the #version command.

ENVIRONMENT

       USER or LOGNAME
              Your login name (used as the player name).

       HOME   Your home directory (used to find the config file).

       NETHACKOPTIONS
              String predefining several standard NetHack options.

       GLHACKOPTIONS
              String predefining several glHack-specific options.

       NETHACKDIR
              Playground directory (see -d option above).

       In addition, SHOPTYPE is used in debugging (wizard) mode.

SECURITY

       glHack runs set-gid games.  This is needed to create/modify the persistent game files.  In general,  set-
       gid  programs  are  a  lot more secure than set-uid programs.  An attacker who successfully compromises a
       set-gid game executable can only mess around with various game data files (typically those in  /var/games
       and /var/lib/games).

       Since  glHack  is  based  on  NetHack 3.4.0, any security issues with NetHack 3.4.0 (past or future) will
       almost certainly apply to this release of glHack.

       Currently there is only one place in the glHack-specific code that creates  or  writes  to  a  file:  the
       screenshot code.  Taking screenshots is restricted to the game administrator (the "wizard" account).

       As far as I know, glHack will never execute another program.  The following features of the NetHack 3.4.0
       codebase  which do execute other programs are disabled in glHack's standard (compile-time) configuration:
       running a compression utility (COMPRESS), running a shell (SHELL), reading mail (MAIL),  and  running  an
       external pager (TTY code).

FILES

       ~/.glhackrc
              Configuration file for glHack.  See the glhackrc(5) manual page for more information.

       /usr/lib/games/glhack
              The  static  playground.   Read-only  files  are  stored  here.   Files  found here will be marked
              "(STATIC)" in the entries below.

       /var/lib/games/glhack
              The variable playground.  Persistent (read/write) data files are stored  here.   These  files  are
              marked "(VAR)" below.

       nhdat (STATIC)
              Archive  containing  all  the  stuff  that NetHack requires to play (level files, text files, help
              files, etc).  The format is DLB (Data LiBrarian) and is NetHack-specific.

       license (STATIC)
              Rules governing redistribution.

       glhack_recover (STATIC)
              This program can be used to recover a game after glHack has crashed (assuming the files  were  not
              corrupted).  It can only be run as the superuser (root).

       gl*.png (STATIC)
              Images (fonts, tilesets, etc) used by glHack.

       gl*.lst (STATIC)
              Miscellaneous data files (e.g. tile facing info) used by glHack.

       record (VAR)
              The list of top scorers.

       logfile (VAR)
              An extended list of games played.

       perm (VAR)
              Empty file used for locking purposes.

       bonDD.nn (VAR)
              Bone files: descriptions of the ghost and belongings of a deceased adventurer.

       NNNNname.dd (VAR)
              Temporary  files  for  a  user  who is currently playing glHack, or after glHack has crashed.  The
              `NNNN' part is the numeric userid, followed by the player's name.

       save/ (VAR)
              A subdirectory containing the saved games.

NO WARRANTIES

       This program is free software.  It is distributed in the hope that it will be  useful,  but  WITHOUT  ANY
       WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.