1 NetHack 3.7.0 work-in-progress -- General information
3 NetHack 3.7 is an enhancement to the dungeon exploration game NetHack,
4 which is a distant descendent of Rogue and Hack, and a direct descendent of
7 NetHack 3.7.0 work-in-progress is not a release of NetHack. As a .0 version,
8 and still very early in its development cycle, there has already been changes
9 made, and there will continue to be many more prior to an eventual release.
10 The file doc/fixes3-7-0.txt in the source distribution will be updated with
11 a list of fixes as they are committed.
13 In short -- there are likely to be bugs. Don't treat NetHack-3.7 branch as
14 released code, and if stability is paramount, then the most recent
15 NetHack 3.6.7 release is safest for you.
17 We're making the .0 work-in-progress available so that you can observe, test
18 out, and contribute to its development. Constructive suggestions, GitHub pull
19 requests, and bug reports are all welcome and encouraged.
21 The file doc/fixes3-7-0.txt in the source distribution has a full list of
22 bug-fixes included so far, as well as brief mentions of some of the other code
23 changes. The text in there was written for the development team's own use and is
24 provided "as is", so please do not ask us to further explain the entries in
25 that file. Some entries might be considered "spoilers", particularly in the
26 "new features" section.
28 Along with the game improvements and bug fixes, NetHack 3.7 strives to make
29 some general architectural improvements to the game or to its building
32 * Remove barriers to building NetHack on one platform and operating system,
33 for later execution on another (possibly quite different) platform and/or
34 operating system. That capability is generally known as "cross-compiling."
35 See the file "Cross-compiling" in the top-level folder for more information
38 * Replace the build-time "yacc and lex"-based level compiler, the "yacc and
39 lex"-based dungeon compiler, and the quest text file processing done
40 by NetHack's "makedefs" utility, with Lua text alternatives that are
41 loaded and processed by the game during play.
43 * Write game savefiles and bonesfiles in a more portable and consistent way
44 to open up the possibility of utilizing them between different platforms,
45 such as between your desktop computer and your hand-held device.
47 * Add support to make the game restartable without exit (a.k.a. "play again"
48 support). Toward that end, many previously scattered and separate variables
49 have been gathered into central 'ga' through 'gz' structures in
50 decl.h/decl.c. That central ability to reinitialize the variables will
51 benefit the porting effort to some platforms that are under consideration
52 where "play again" is typical.
54 Here are some other general notes on the changes in NetHack 3.7 that were not
56 - automatic annotation "gateway to Moloch's Sanctum" for vibrating square
57 level once that square's location becomes known (found or magic
58 mapped); goes away once sanctum temple is found (entered or high altar
60 - savefile: add support to deconstruct internal data structures down into
61 their individual fields and save those fields instead of the entire
63 - savefile: use little-endian format for fields where that makes a difference
67 Please read items (1), (2) and (3) BEFORE doing anything with your new code.
69 1. Unpack the code in a dedicated new directory. We will refer to that
70 directory as the 'Top' directory. It makes no difference what you
73 2. Having unpacked, you should have a file called 'Files' in your Top
76 This file contains the list of all the files you now SHOULD
77 have in each directory. Please check the files in each directory
78 against this list to make sure that you have a complete set.
80 This file also contains a list of what files are created during
83 The names of the directories listed should not be changed unless you
84 are ready to go through the makefiles and the makedefs program and change
85 all the directory references in them.
87 3. Before you do anything else, please read carefully the file called
88 "license" in the 'dat' subdirectory. It is expected that you comply
89 with the terms of that license, and we are very serious about it.
91 4. If you are attempting to build NetHack on one platform/processor, to
92 produce a game on a different platform/processor it may behoove you to
93 read the file "Cross-compiling" in your Top directory.
95 5. If everything is in order, you can now turn to trying to get the program
96 to compile and run on your particular system. It is worth mentioning
97 that the default configuration is SysV/Sun/Solaris2.x (simply because
98 the code was housed on such a system).
100 The files sys/*/Install.* were written to guide you in configuring the
101 program for your operating system. The files win/*/Install.* are
102 available, where necessary, to help you in configuring the program
103 for particular windowing environments. Reading them, and the man pages,
104 should answer most of your questions.
107 At the time of the most recent official release, NetHack 3.6, it had
108 been tested to run/compile on:
110 Intel Pentium or better running Linux, BSDI
111 Intel Pentium or better running Windows 10 or 11
112 Intel-based, or Apple M1, M2, M3 Macs running
113 macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) to macOS 14 (Sonoma)
114 (follow the instructions in sys/unix/NewInstall.unx)
115 Intel 80386 or greater running MS-DOS with DPMI
116 built via djgpp compiler (native or Linux-hosted cross-compiler)
117 OpenVMS (aka VMS) V8.4 on Alpha and on Integrity/Itanium/IA64
119 Previous versions of NetHack were tested and known to run on the
120 following systems, but it is unknown if they can still build and
121 execute NetHack 3.6 or NetHack 3.7:
123 Apple Macintosh running MacOS 7.5 or higher, LinuxPPC, BeOS 4.0
124 Atari ST/TT/Falcon running TOS (or MultiTOS) with GCC
125 AT&T 3B1 running System V (3.51)
126 AT&T 3B2/600 & 3B2/622 running System V R3.2.1
127 AT&T 3B2/1000 Model 80 running System V R3.2.2
128 AT&T 3B4000 running System V
129 AT&T 6386 running System V R3.2
130 Commodore Amiga running AmigaDOS 3.0 or higher with SAS/C 6.x
131 (but see Makefile.ami about DICE and Manx)
132 Data General AViiON systems running DG/UX
133 DEC Alpha/VMS (aka OpenVMS AXP), running V1.x through V7.1
134 DEC VAX/VMS, running V4.6 through V7.1
135 DEC vaxen running BSD, Ultrix
136 Decstations running Ultrix 3.1, 4.x
137 Encore Multimax running UMAX 4.2
138 Gould NP1 running UTX 3/2
139 HP 9000s300 running HP-UX
140 HP 9000s700 running HP-UX 9.x, 10.x, 11.x
141 H/PC Pro devices running Windows CE 2.11 and higher.
142 IBM PC/RT and RS/6000 running AIX 3.x
143 IBM PS/2 and AT compatibles running OS/2 - 2.0 and up with GCC emx
144 IBM PS/2 and AT compatibles running OS/2 1.1 - 2.0 (and probably
145 Warp) with Microsoft 6.0, and OS/2 2.0 and up with IBM CSet++ 2.0.
146 Intel 80386 or greater (or clone) running 386BSD
147 Intel x86 running a version of Windows 7 or 8 or prior to XP.
148 Mips M2000 running RiscOS 4.1
149 NeXT running Mach (using BSD configuration)
150 Palm Size PC 1.1 devices running Windows CE 2.11
151 Pocket PC devices running Windows CE 3.0 and higher
152 Pyramid 9820x running OSx 4.4c
153 SGI Iris running IRIX
154 Stardent Vistra 800 running SysV R4.0
155 Stride 460 running UniStride 2.1
156 Sun-3s, -4s, and -386is running SunOS 3.x
157 Sun-3s and -386is running SunOS 4.x
158 "Sun SPARC"-based machine running SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x, or Solaris 7
159 Valid Logic Systems SCALD-System
161 Previous versions, using a cross-compiler hosted on another platform,
162 such as win32, could also build the following from source:
163 Pocket PC devices running Windows CE 3.0 and higher
164 H/PC Pro devices running Windows CE 2.11 and higher
165 Palm Size PC 1.1 devices running Windows CE 2.11
167 Unless otherwise mentioned, the compiler used was the OS-vendor's
170 - - - - - - - - - - -
172 If you have problems building the game, or you find bugs in it, we recommend
173 filing a bug report from our "Contact Us" web page at:
174 https://www.nethack.org/common/contact.html
175 Please include the version information from #version or the command line
176 option --version in the appropriate field.
178 A public repository of the latest NetHack code that we've made
179 available can be obtained via git here:
180 https://github.com/NetHack/NetHack
182 https://sourceforge.net/p/nethack/NetHack/
184 When sending correspondence, please observe the following:
185 o Please be sure to include your machine type, OS, and patchlevel.
186 o Please avoid sending us binary files (e.g. save files or bones files).
187 If you have found a bug and think that your save file would aid in solving
188 the problem, send us a description in words of the problem, your machine
189 type, your operating system, and the version of NetHack. Tell us that you
190 have a save file, but do not actually send it.
191 You may then be contacted by a member of the development team with the
192 address of a specific person to send the save file to.
193 o Though we make an effort to reply to each bug report, it may take some
194 time before you receive feedback. This is especially true during the
195 period immediately after a new release, when we get the most bug reports.
196 o We don't give hints for playing the game.
197 o Don't bother to ask when the next version will be out or you can expect
198 to receive a stock answer.
200 If you want to submit a patch for the NetHack source code via email directly,
201 you can direct it to this address:
202 nethack-bugs (at) nethack.org
204 If a feature is not accepted you are free, of course, to post the patches
205 to the net yourself and let the marketplace decide their worth.
207 All of this amounts to the following: If you decide to apply a free-lanced
208 patch to your 3.6 code, you are welcome to do so, of course, but we won't
209 be able to provide support or receive bug reports for it.
211 In our own patches, we will assume that your code is synchronized with ours.
213 -- Good luck, and happy Hacking --
215 # $NHDT-Date: 1652133501 2022/05/09 21:58:21 $ $NHDT-Branch: NetHack-3.7 $:$NHDT-Revision: 1.97 $
216 # Copyright (c) 2012 by Michael Allison
217 # NetHack may be freely redistributed. See license for details.