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.
SEE ALSO¶
glhackrc(5) nethack-guidebook(6)
The glHack Homepage:
http://glhack.sourceforge.net/
The official NetHack page:
http://www.nethack.org/
Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of TSR Inc.