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.