Experimental BBS Explossion 3/Experimental BBS Explossion III.iso/games/nhak_src.zip/INSTALL.VMS

Text File | 1993-03-16 | 11KB | 183 lines

               Instructions for Installing NetHack 3.0
                          on a VMS system
               =======================================

    (Credit for an enhanced VMS NetHack 3.0 goes to the VMS team of
    Joshua Delahunty and Pat Rankin who built on the work of David
    Gentzel.)

1.  Building NetHack requires a C compiler (either VAX C or GNU C) and
    VMS version 4.6 or later (but see note #9).  It has been tested on 5.3;
    as of this writing, 5.4 has not yet been released.  For MicroVMS 4.6
    or 4.7, an extra edit is required in file vmsconf.h (see step #3).
    The new build procedure (vmsbuild.com) should not need to be
    modified; it now accepts an option for selecting VAXC vs GNUC, and it
    can detect different versions of VAXC to use appropriate CC command
    qualifiers.  Versions of VAXC earlier than v2.3 will produce many
    warning messages (over 100 per source file; close to 10,000 total!),
    but NetHack has been verified to compile, link, and execute correctly
    when built with VAXC v2.2 using vmsbuild.com.

2.  Make sure all the NetHack files are in the appropriate directory
    structure.  You should have a main directory with subdirectories
    [.vms], [.src], [.include], [.auxil], and [.others]; you may also
    have [.amiga] and [.mac], but they are not needed to build NetHack
    on VMS.  If you do not follow this structure, the supplied procedures
    and instructions in this file will not function properly.  The .c
    files in [.src] are files which are used by all versions of NetHack,
    regardless of machine (there are a few UNIX-specific files, but we can
    ignore them).  The build & install command procedures (.com), the
    VMS-specific .c files, and one VMS-specific .h file belong in [.vms].
    All the .h files (except lev_lex.h) belong in [.include].  Other
    assorted files belong in [.auxil].  The only files in [.others] used
    by the VMS version of NetHack are random.c and possibly termcap.
    (The directory structure is also described in the file called Files.)

3.  Go to the [.include] subdirectory and edit vmsconf.h according to
    the comments.  You may also want to edit config.h, but that's only
    necessary if you want or need to disable some of the game options.
    The distributed copy of config.h will work successfully on VMS;
    vmsconf.h has conditional code to deal with the UNIX-specific items.

4.  Go to the [.src] directory and look at the top of topten.c.  You may
    want to change the definitions of PERSMAX and PERS_IS_UID here to get
    different behavior from the high score list.

5.  If you have lex or flex and yacc or bison, you may edit the procedure
    [.vms]spec_lev.com and execute it to process a couple of source files
    for NetHack's special level compiler.  This step is optional; the
    distribution contains pre-processed versions of these files that can
    be used as is.
       $ @[.VMS]SPEC_LEV        !{OPTIONAL}
    If you perform this step, do so prior to executing vmsbuild.com.

6.  To build NETHACK.EXE and a couple of its auxiliary programs, execute
    the following two DCL commands:
       $ SET DEFAULT [.SRC]     !assuming you're currently in 'main'
       $ @[-.VMS]VMSBUILD       !defaults to VAXC unless symbol 'CC' exists
    or $ @[-.VMS]VMSBUILD "GNUC"
    then go get a cup of coffee or take a nap.  Using VAXC v3.1, the
    build procedure takes about 45-60 minutes on an unloaded VAXstation
    3100-38 with local disk; it will take *much* longer on slower systems
    such as uVAX-II and 11/7xx.  After completion, you should now have
    created the game executable, NETHACK.EXE, with a size of roughly 1300
    blocks (larger if the VAXCRTL object-library option of vmsbuild is used).

7.  Go back to the main directory.  Edit [.vms]install.com to indicate
    where you want everything to be installed.  Use the command
       $ @[.VMS]INSTALL
    to build some data files using the two auxiliary programs, and to
    create the target directory and copy all necessary files there.
    After it completes, the files [.src]*.obj, [.src]nethack.olb and
    [.src]*.exe can be deleted if you wish to recover their disk space.

Notes:

1.  VMS NetHack uses the termcap routines borrowed from GNU Emacs.  These
    have been supplied for those who do not already have GNU Emacs, but
    they are not properly a part of the NetHack distribution.  Since
    these files (vmstermcap.c and vmstparam.c) bear the usual GNU license,
    any executable made with these files is also under the GNU license,
    which among other things means you must be prepared to distribute all
    the source that went into the executable if you distribute the
    executable.  See the GNU license in the files for further details.

2.  termcap is a text file containing descriptions of terminal capabilities
    and the escape sequences that software must use to take advantage of
    them.  If you do not already have a termcap file in use on your
    system there is a small one in file [.OTHERS]TERMCAP.  It contains
    definitions for common Digital terminals, also suitable for most
    clones and emulators.  NetHack uses the translation of the logical
    name TERMCAP to find the termcap file, so you need to use the DCL
    command DEFINE or ASSIGN to set it up.  It uses the logical name
    NETHACK_TERM to get the name of the terminal (such as "vt100").  If
    that logical name is not defined, it tries EMACS_TERM.  If that also
    is not defined, it uses the value generated by the C Run-Time library,
    which is normally of the form "vt100-80" or "vt200-132".

3.  There is code which attempts to make NetHack secure in case it is
    installed with privileges (to allow the playground to be protected against
    world write).  THIS HAS NOT BEEN TESTED.  Install NetHack with privileges
    at your own risk.  If you do so, however, we would love to hear of your
    experiences, good or bad.  The default setup uses world-writeable files,
    which is NOT secure and not advisable in any environment where there
    are untrustworthy users.  If you allow users to run NetHack from
    captive accounts (VMS 5.1 or earlier) or from restricted accounts
    (5.2 and later), you must either make sure that they do not have TMPMBX
    privilege or else disable NetHack's ability to spawn an interactive
    subprocess.  To disable subprocesses, disable the "!" (shell) command
    by commenting out the definition of SHELL in vmsconf.h prior to
    building the program.  This necessity will be removed in a future
    release, where NetHack will check for captive accounts correctly.

4.  VMS NetHack uses SMG$READ_KEYSTROKE to read characters from the
    keyboard.  This means that arrow keys work, but also means that using
    escape to abort commands doesn't.  If you want to abort a command use
    two escapes or ^Z.  Just about any non-arrow function key should also
    work as an abort.  Note that under UNIX ^Z is the suspend command; a
    future release may re-utilize ^Z in some similar capacity on VMS.

5.  NetHack does not run in PASTHRU or PASSALL mode.  This is to allow ^C
    interrupts.  An unpleasant (albeit minor) side-effect of this is that
    some wizard commands don't work (^G, ^O, ^X).  Another side-effect is
    that ^Y and ^C echo "<interrupt>" and "<cancel>" respectively.  This
    will be fixed in a future release.

6.  To install an update of this version of NetHack after changing something
    you will have to go through almost the entire build process (unless you
    know for certain exactly what needs to be rebuilt).  If you added,
    deleted, or reordered monsters or objects or changed the format of saved
    level files, you should also remove any saved games and bones levels.
    (Trying to use such files often produces amusing but useless confusions
    on the game's part.)  If you just want to re-link the program, you
    can invoke vmsbuild.com with a parameter value of "LINK", as in
       $ @[-.vms]vmsbuild "LINK"
    If you need to link with the GNUC library, then you must have a DCL
    symbol 'CC' whose value begins with "G" (or "g").  This is necessary
    because the mechanism for specifying GNUC vs VAXC is not accessible
    when you specify "LINK" as the procedure parameter.

7.  In version 3.0 patchlevel 7, the format of the record (score) file
    was changed.  If you want to use an old record file from an earlier
    version, manually edit it so that the killer (last item on each line)
    is preceded by "killed by", "killed by a", or "killed by an".  If the
    death was by petrification, use "petrified by" instead.  Do not
    change "starvation", "quit", "escaped", or "ascended".  Record files
    retained from patchlevel 7 to patchlevel 8 do not need any fixups.

8.  NetHack optionally maintains a logfile which receives one line appended
    to it whenever a game ends.  This can be disabled entirely by adding
    an "#undef LOGFILE" directive to vmsconf.h prior to building the
    program, or it can be disabled later by removing the file "LOGFILE."
    from the playground directory.  If not disabled prior to compilation,
    the logfile can be reinitialized by simply creating an empty LOGFILE
    in the playground, but make sure that it's protected properly or new
    entries will not be appended.

9.  Support for VMS versions earlier than V4.6 is now included.  The need
    for this support is detected automatically by vmsbuild.com, and also
    automatically used when needed, but it has not received as thorough a
    testing as the rest of NetHack.  The reason that special support is
    needed is that the C Run-Time Library (VAXCRTL) underwent a major
    revision for VMS V4.6.  Several routines which NetHack utilizes were
    not available prior to that upgrade.

10. The new release of vmsbuild.com collects most of the object files
    (xxx.OBJ) into an object library (NETHACK.OLB) as it compiles the
    source files.  This should prevent the EXQUOTA problem that some
    sites have reported when linking nethack.exe, by limiting the number
    of files which the linker accesses at one time.  Note that if you
    compile any source files manually, you'll need to replace those
    modules in the object library prior to linking the program:
       $ cc/include=[-.include] [-.vms]vmstty   !for example
       $ libr/obj nethack vmstty                !replace VMSTTY
       $ @[-.vms]vmsbuild LINK                  !re-link NETHACK.EXE
    If you forget to replace the library entry, your newly compiled code
    will not be included in the new executable image.

11. If necessary, send problem reports via email to
       "[e-mail]"  (Internet address 130.91.6.8).

27-MAY-1990