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"
Some platforms compile ncurses in such a way that the tinfo library needs to
be separately linked in (e.g. Gentoo).
The tinfo library is a low-level library being used by and bundled with
ncurses.
Adding '-ltinfo' to WINTTYLIB in the hint files was considered the most robust
solution to this problem. This still works on systems with ncurses 5.9.
Using pkg-config was ruled out as the default build of ncurses doesn't install
the necessary files.
