golson@sundown.Ebay.sun.COM (Greg Olson) (11/15/90)
Hello fellow nethackers, Here is information regarding how you can get the NetHack 3.0 (Pl9) binaries or source for your computer. In response to a number of posted requests, I have set up -- FOR A TEMPORARY TEST PERIOD -- an email service. Its longevity is conditioned on how prudent and conservative will its use be by the public. If you have ftp access (directly or through a friend), please use it to grab the binaries or source from public-access archives such as uunet.uu.net or saab, or from pub on linc.cis.upenn.edu. This will not only save a ton of mail bandwidth, it will also get you your binary or code sooner! If you do not know how to use anonymous ftp, here is how: ANONYMOUS FTP ------------- Using anonymous ftp is fairly simple and straightforward. Type, e.g., the following to prompt (you may have to do this from your gateway machine): ftp -i linc.cis.upenn.edu Soon, if everything goes OK, you'll be prompted for an account name. Do not use your account name as on your machine. Instead, use the login name, "anonymous" (without the quotes). You will then be prompted for a password. Simply type in your login name (or the traditional "guest", or anything, for that matter), and you will be logged in! You are now in an area called "ftp". At this point, the unix commands "ls" (or "ls -l") and "cd" work. You must now move into the appropriate nethack directory for the entity which you want to download. The following are target directories on linc.cis.upenn.edu: pub/NH3.0 - NetHack 3.0 source pub/NH3.0/amiga - Amiga binaries pub/NH3.0/atari - Atari ST binaries pub/NH3.0/mac - Macintosh binaries pub/NH3.0/os2 - OS/2 binaries pub/NH3.0/PC - PC overlay binaries Change into your choice of directory by typing, e.g., "cd pub/NH3.0" to the ftp prompt. Next, if you intend to download any of the binaries EXCEPT the Macintosh, tell ftp that you want it to enter "binary mode" (if you don't understand, it's OK. Trust me :^) by typing "binary" (again, without the quotes) to the ftp prompt. The NetHack code (in pub/NH3.0) and the Macintosh binaries (in pub/NH3.0/mac) are packaged in ASCII, and they do NOT require a binary mode transfer. Now you're ready to do some downloading. Type "mget *" to the ftp prompt, and you should start to see some messages informing you that files are being downloaded. That's all there is to it!! As soon as the transfer is complete, type "bye", and you're back to your machine. Note: unpacking the source requires the utilities uudecode, uncompress and tar. If you do not understand this, see your systems administrator for guidance. In all cases, read the README file before trying to unpack. ============================================================================== You should only be reading down here if you don't have ftp capabilities, and don't have a friend with the source/binary, and really have no other avenue to get the stuff. In case you haven't gotten the idea, the following method for getting the source or binaries should be used only as a last resort. This section describes how to get nethack via email..... NETHACK VIA EMAIL ----------------- If you don't have ftp access, then send an email request to one of the following aliases: nethack30_amiga@sundown.ebay.sun.com - amiga binary nethack30_atari@sundown.ebay.sun.com - atari binary nethack30_mac@sundown.ebay.sun.com - mac binary nethack30_os2@sundown.ebay.sun.com - os2 binary nethack30_pc@sundown.ebay.sun.com - pc binary nethack30_src@sundown.ebay.sun.com - src transfer nethack30_help@sundown.ebay.sun.com - this file nethack30_operator@sundown.ebay.sun.com - contact me Most of these aliases are set up to mail to you the requested NetHack package at off peak hours (around midnight). When your request is received, a confirmation message will be sent back to you with additional information on how to extract/uudecode, etc., the packages you'll receive. VERY IMPORTANT: Please make sure that you have enough spool space for the stuff you request. The following are estimates of how much space you're going to need: amiga binary - 850 K atari binary - 750 K mac binary - 750 K os2 binary - 700 K pc binary - 700 K nethack source - 2.1 Megs If you don't have enough spool space, it's going to make life rough for both you and me. During this trial period, there is a limit of 10 binaries per night which will go out (per machine). This serves a couple of purposes, the main one being we don't want to flood any mailers out there. When you make the request, you will receive an acknowledgement which will give an ETA of when you can expect to be seeing nethack. One more thing I'm going to warn you about. If you want the source, you must have access to uudecode, compress and tar. Due to its size, the source will only be mailed on Saturday nights. If there will be too many requests for the source, I'll have to discontinue offering it. So please only ask for the source if you absolutely positively have to have it or you'll spontaniously combust, and you have no other way of getting it. Now, what if you've already made the request, and want to cancel it? No problem. Just send a cancel request to one of the aliases below -- depending on what you had originally requested: nethack30_amiga_cancel@sundown.ebay.sun.com nethack30_atari_cancel@sundown.ebay.sun.com nethack30_mac_cancel@sundown.ebay.sun.com nethack30_os2_cancel@sundown.ebay.sun.com nethack30_pc_cancel@sundown.ebay.sun.com nethack30_src_cancel@sundown.ebay.sun.com If I receive your cancel request before your package was mailed, it will be dequeued, and a confirmation telling you so will be mailed back to you. Finally, if you want to communicate with me, send mail to nethack30_operator@sundown.ebay.sun.com and I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible (my hours are sporadic). Well, that about does it. We sure hope you enjoy nethack! --Greg (for the nethack team)