Allow a way to configure NetHack to run entirely from a USB stick
or other removable device in a way that allows everything to
reside entirely on the USB stick, and nothing on the computer's
hard drive. That could be done in versions prior to 3.6.3.
Sample:
i: is a USB stick
i:\nhdist contains the NetHack Windows distribution and a sysconf
file dropped into that distribution with the following entry in it:
portable_device_top = nethack
No device is included in the portable_device_top entry, the device
is always the device that the nethack exe resides on. If you try
to specify a device in the portable_device_top path, the device
portion will be ignored.
portable_device_top specifies the folder on the device that is writable
by NetHack and as such it cannot be the same folder that the executable
resides in.
i:\nhdist\nethack --showpaths
Variable playground locations:
[hackdir ]="i:\nethack\"
[leveldir ]="i:\nethack\"
[savedir ]="i:\nethack\"
[bonesdir ]="i:\nethack\"
[datadir ]="i:\nhdist\"
[scoredir ]="i:\nethack\"
[lockdir ]="i:\nethack\"
[sysconfdir]="i:\nhdist\"
[configdir ]="i:\nethack\"
[troubledir]="i:\nethack\"
NetHack's system configuration file (in sysconfdir):
"i:\nhdist\sysconf"
The loadable symbols file (in sysconfdir):
"i:\nhdist\symbols"
Basic data files (in datadir) are collected inside:
"i:\nhdist\nhdat363"
No end-of-game disclosure file (disabled).
Writable folder for portable device config (sysconf portable_device_top):
"i:\nethack\"
Your personal configuration file (in configdir):
"i:\nethack\.nethackrc"
Without that sysconf file in the NetHack distribution folder on the
USB stick with the 'portable_device_top = ' entry, the paths
return to the default locations for 3.6.3 on Windows:
i:\nhdist\nethack --showpaths
Variable playground locations:
[hackdir ]="C:\Users\JaneDoe\NetHack\3.6\"
[leveldir ]="C:\Users\JaneDoe\AppData\Local\NetHack\3.6\"
[savedir ]="C:\Users\JaneDoe\AppData\Local\NetHack\3.6\"
[bonesdir ]="C:\ProgramData\NetHack\3.6\"
[datadir ]="i:\nhdist\"
[scoredir ]="C:\ProgramData\NetHack\3.6\"
[lockdir ]="C:\ProgramData\NetHack\3.6\"
[sysconfdir]="C:\ProgramData\NetHack\3.6\"
[configdir ]="C:\Users\JaneDoe\NetHack\"
[troubledir]="C:\Users\JaneDoe\NetHack\3.6\"
NetHack's system configuration file (in sysconfdir):
"C:\ProgramData\NetHack\3.6\sysconf"
The loadable symbols file (in sysconfdir):
"C:\ProgramData\NetHack\3.6\symbols"
Basic data files (in datadir) are collected inside:
"i:\nhdist\nhdat363"
No end-of-game disclosure file (disabled).
Your personal configuration file (in configdir):
"C:\Users\JaneDoe\NetHack\.nethackrc"
Provide a little more information when dumplog is unavailable.
While testing various permutations, I encountered a couple of
problems with conditionally declared variables.
The Windows data file path has to be constructed because
Windows defines VERSION_IN_DLB_FILENAME.
Keep the personal configuration file details as the last
information displayed.
Have the --showpaths feedback mention whether dlb is in use or not,
and show the container file name(s) when it is. Users of prebuilt
binaries or who build with a hints file instead of picking and
choosing things in config.h might not know, and vms (if it ever
catches up with --showpaths) uses a different container name from
everybody else ("nh-data.dlb" instead of "nhdat").
While not a path exactly, the dumplog file isn't placed somewhere
fixed so being able to see where it is placed could be useful.
This cascaded a bit during testing. Fix one of the warnings from
hardfought (fqn_prefix_names[]). And a few more that came up with
SYSCF disabled (panictrace_gdb, two unused variables if files.c).
Fix a couple of warnings about unused variables but mainly handle
OSX's multiple-choice for configuration file name. I tried moving
my ~/.nethackrc to '~/Library/Prefences/NetHack Defaults.txt' and
both regular play and --showpaths are finding it successfully.
Also an untested fix for VMS. "nethackini" is not supposed to have
any path information attached.
Add
--showpaths
early option to show where NetHack is expecting to find certain files
without starting up a game. It exits afterwards.
Windows sample (for illustration only, locations may differ for you):
Variable playground locations:
[hackdir ]="C:\Users\JohnDoe\NetHack\3.6\"
[leveldir ]="C:\Users\JohnDoe\AppData\Local\NetHack\3.6\"
[savedir ]="C:\Users\JohnDoe\AppData\Local\NetHack\3.6\"
[bonesdir ]="C:\ProgramData\NetHack\3.6\"
[datadir ]="C:\personal\nhdev\363\test\binary\"
[scoredir ]="C:\ProgramData\NetHack\3.6\"
[lockdir ]="C:\ProgramData\NetHack\3.6\"
[sysconfdir]="C:\ProgramData\NetHack\3.6\"
[configdir ]="C:\Users\JohnDoe\NetHack\3.6\"
[troubledir]="C:\Users\JohnDoe\NetHack\3.6\"
Your system configuration file (in sysconfdir):
"C:\Users\JohnDoe\NetHack\3.6\sysconf"
Your system symbols file (in sysconfdir):
"C:\Users\JohnDoe\NetHack\3.6\symbols"
Your personal configuration file (in configdir):
"C:\Users\JohnDoe\NetHack\3.6\.nethackrc"
Linux (for illustration only, locations may differ for you):
Your system configuration file:
"/home/johndoe/nh/install/games/lib/nethackdir/sysconf"
Your system symbols file:
"/home/johndoe/nh/install/games/lib/nethackdir/symbols"
Your personal configuration file:
"/home/johndoe/.nethackrc"
Reported directly to devteam, the POSIX_TYPES subset (most? all
these days?) of Unix that defines USE_FCNTL was unlocking lock file
'perm' when done with it but wasn't explicitly closing it unless
the unlocking failed. Triggered a valgrind complaint and could have
posed a problem if restart gets implemented for this configuraiton.
A few symbol-related modifications:
- fulfill a request from a blind player to allow them to
specify a unique/recognizable character for all pets and/or
the player in the config file for use when using a screen
reader (S_player_override, S_pet_override). Requires sysconf
setting ACCESSIBILITY to be set to have an effect, although
they can still be specified in the config file.
- Config file SYMBOLS entries were not working properly on
the rogue level. Allow ROGUESYMBOLS as well as SYMBOLS to be
specified in the config file independently.
- When values are moved into showsyms[], the overriding SYMBOLS
or ROGUESYMBOLS entry from the config file is used if there is
one; if there is no overriding value for a particular symbol,
the loaded symset value is used; if there is no symset entry
loaded for the symbol then a default symbol is used.
