1 SCCS Id: @(#)Install.dos 3.4
3 Copyright (c) NetHack PC Development Team 1990-2002.
4 NetHack may be freely redistributed. See license for details.
5 ==============================================================
6 Instructions for compiling and installing
7 NetHack 3.4 on a DOS system
8 ======================================================
9 (or, How to make PC NetHack 3.4)
10 Last revision: $Date: 2003/06/13 19:57:52 $
12 Credit for a runnable full PC NetHack 3.4 goes to the PC Development team
13 of Paul Winner, Kevin Smolkowski, Michael Allison, Yitzhak Sapir, Bill Dyer,
14 Timo Hakulinen, Yamamoto Keizo, Mike Threepoint, Mike Stephenson,
15 Stephen White, Ken Washikita and Janet Walz. The present port is based
16 on the previous effort of Pierre Martineau, Stephen Spackman, Steve Creps, Mike
17 Threepoint, Mike Stephenson, Norm Meluch and Don Kneller.
19 There has been very little port-specific maintenance for NetHack on DOS since
24 I. Dispelling the Myths
25 II. Compiling on a DOS machine
26 Appendix A - Building the "official binary"
27 Appendix B - DJGPP Compiler (gcc ported to msdos) notes
28 Appendix C - Additional Notes
29 Appendix D - Contacting Us
31 I. Dispelling the Myths:
33 Compiling NetHack is not as easy as it sounds, nor as hard as it looks,
34 however it will behoove you to read this entire file through before
37 We have provided a proper Makefile for building NetHack using the
41 For specific details concerning the djgpp compiler, please see the
44 The makefile named Makefile.GCC is for use with GNU Make that
47 If you want to build a copy of NetHack that is identical to the
48 "official binary", please see appendix A.
50 The unsupported sys/msdos/Makefile.MSC was for the old 16 bit
51 Microsoft Visual C 1.52c compiler and has not been made compliant
54 You may find it useful to obtain copies of lex (flex) and yacc (bison
55 or byacc). While not strictly necessary to compile nethack, they are
56 required should you desire to make any changes to the level and dungeon
57 compilers. Flex and Bison are included with the DJGPP distribution and
58 are also available on many archive sites.
60 Also be sure to pick up djgpp v2gnu/fil41b.zip to get ls.exe and
61 touch.exe, since the Makefile uses them by default.
63 II. To compile your copy of NetHack on a DOS machine:
64 (or "just follow these few 'simple' steps outlined below.")
66 1. It almost goes without saying that you should make sure that your tools
67 are set up and running correctly.
69 2. Make sure all the NetHack files are in the appropriate directory
70 structure. You should have a main directory with subdirectories
71 dat, doc, include, src, sys\share, sys\msdos, util, win\tty and
72 win\share. Other subdirectories may also be included in your
73 distribution, but they are not necessary for use with DOS. You can
74 delete them to save space.
76 Required Source Directories for DOS NetHack:
80 -------------------------------------------------
82 util dat doc include src sys win
88 Check the file "Files" in your top level directory for an exact
89 listing of what files are in which directory. In order for the
90 Makefiles to work, all the source files must be in the proper
93 If you downloaded or ftp'd the sources from a UNIX system, the lines
94 will probably end in UNIX-style newlines, instead of the carriage
95 return and line feed pairs used by DOS. Some programs have trouble
96 with them, so you may need to convert them (with a utility like
97 Rahul Dhesi's "flip").
99 3. Go to the sys/msdos directory and ensure that the file setup.bat
100 has MSDOS style end-of-line characters rather than UNIX style
101 end-of-line characters. You can do that using a utility like
102 Rahul Dhesi's "flip", or by invoking the MSDOS edit utility on
103 setup.bat and saving the file without making any changes. Failure to
104 do this will prevent the bat file from executing completely, yet no
105 warning message will be given.
107 Run the setup.bat batch file with the following as the argument:
109 GCC For djgpp and GNU MAKE.
111 The appropriate and necessary Makefile movement will be accomplished
112 for you, as well as verifying a few files and fixing a few file names
113 on FAT systems with long file name support.
115 4. Now go to the include subdirectory to check a couple of the header
116 files there. Things *should* work as they are, but since you have
117 probably set up your system in some sort of custom configuration
118 it doesn't hurt to check out the following:
120 First check config.h according to the comments to match your system and
121 desired set of features. Mostly you need to check the WIZARD option,
122 and check TERMLIB and COMPRESS. Also be sure to leave DLB support
123 commented out in config.h. MSDOS has support for DLB, but it must be
124 done through the Makefile, rather than config.h, to ensure that the
125 necessary packaging steps are done.
127 We've managed to enable all the special features. You may include all
128 or as few of them as you wish. To conserve disk space, you may wish
129 to disable LOGFILE and NEWS.
131 Also check pcconf.h, which should not need much editing (if you are
132 including random.c, and if you do not require termcap for screen
133 management). If you are not including random.c you will need to
136 If using DJGPP, you can choose between SCREEN_BIOS
137 and SCREEN_DJGPPFAST. Never, never, ever choose both. Bad things
138 will happen. We are not kidding.
140 5. If you want to change the high score list behavior, examine the top of
141 topten.c, in the src directory. You may want to change the definitions of
142 PERSMAX, POINTSMIN, and ENTRYMAX. We set POINTSMIN to 51 and ENTRYMAX to
143 50 to keep the size of the score list down.
145 6. Go to the src directory and edit the top of your Makefile. Be sure the
146 directory you want the game installed in (GAMEDIR) actually exists.
148 7. Now that everything is set up,
150 Go to the src directory, and using the GNU Make utility,
153 Depending on your particular machine and compiler, you can either
154 grab a cup of coffee or go home for the day. Your computer will be
155 occupied for quite some time. If all goes well, you will get an
158 9. If you chose DLB support (recommended), make sure that the file nhdat
159 got copied into the game directory.
161 If you didn't choose DLB support, make sure the support files --
162 data, rumors, cmdhelp, opthelp, help, hh,history, guidebook.txt
163 license, and all the *.lev files -- were copied to the game directory.
164 If not, move them there from the dat directory yourself. rumors can
165 be created manually be entering "makedefs -r", data by entering
168 Make sure the files NetHack1.tib and NetHacko.tib made it to your game
169 directory. Copy them from src to the game directory yourself if
172 Make sure the files defaults.nh and termcap made it to your game
173 directory. If not, go to sys\share and copy NetHack.cnf to
174 your game directory as defaults.nh. The name in previous versions was
175 nethack.cnf, but the CNF extension conflicted with the MS Windows
176 speed-dialer, making the file hidden on many machines.
178 If you changed your build settings to include TERMCAP support, copy
179 termcap to your game directory.
181 Also, make sure the file msdoshlp.txt made it to your game directory.
182 If it didn't, move it from sys\msdos to your game directory
185 10. In your game directory, review the settings in defaults.nh and adjust
186 them according to your style of play.
188 11. Play NetHack. If it works, you're done!
190 Appendix A - Building the "official binary"
192 If you wish to build a copy of NetHack identical to the one that
193 the pc team distributes, simply do the following:
195 The 32-bit Protected Mode DPMI version built with 32-bit djgpp
196 compiler V2.03 or greater, make no changes to any of the defines and use
197 the Makefile.GCC as distributed, and as moved in step 3.
199 Paths below are relative to the top of your unpacked
200 NetHack source distribution:
202 md \nethack\binary (must match Makefile)
209 Make sure the following files have been converted from the
210 unix style "^J" end of line, to the msdos style "^M^J":
211 license, defaults.nh.
213 Place all the files in a clean directory and test.
215 Appendix B - DJGPP Compiler (gcc ported to msdos)
217 If you have a 386 or better machine, you are in luck. You can compile
218 NetHack without spending money on a compiler. DJGPP is available free
219 from many archive sites.
220 At the time of this release in April 2002, the URL
221 http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/zip-picker.html/
222 had information on how to obtain djgpp and what pieces to get.
223 Be sure to pick up djgpp v2gnu/fil41b.zip to get ls.exe and
224 touch.exe, since the Makefile uses them by default (or change
225 the Makefile to use alternatives).
227 Special note for Windows 2000 / Windows XP users: You must have a
228 recent djgpp distribution for the build process, and the generated
229 executables to work properly on those platforms.
231 Setting up DJGPP is more than adequately explained in the documentation
232 that comes with it. Be sure to pick up the yacc and flex built with
233 DJGPP if you intend to do any modification of the special levels or
234 dungeon compilers. They should be available at the same place you got
237 The latest version of djgpp, V2.03 with the most recent refresh
238 will produce a binary that will run under Microsoft Windows, or any
239 other DPMI provider. djgpp also comes with a DPMI provider called CWSDPMI.
240 Place CWSDPMI.EXE in your path and it will be used in the absence of any
243 If you want to use the built-in DJGPP screen routines, uncomment
244 SCREEN_DJGPPFAST in pcconf.h (the default for djgpp).
246 Appendix C - Additional Notes
248 1) Save files and bones files from versions of NetHack prior to 3.4.0 will not
249 work with this NetHack. Don't bother trying to keep them.
251 2) To install an update of NetHack after changing something, type 'make'
252 for DJGPP from the src directory. If you add, delete, or reorder monsters or
253 objects, or you change the format of saved level files, delete any save
254 and bones files. (Trying to use such files sometimes produces amusing
255 confusions on the game's part, but usually crashes.)
258 Appendix D - Contacting the Development Team
260 If you discover a bug and wish to report it, or if you have comments
261 or suggestions we recommend using
262 our "Contact Us" web page at:
263 http://www.nethack.org/common/contact.html
265 If you don't have access to the web, or you want to send us a patch
266 to the NetHack source code feel free to drop us a line c/o:
267 DevTeam (at) nethack.org