u/vvildfire

I am attempting to figure out how to compile NetHack 3.6.7 myself so that I can apply patches from the patch database, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting it to work. I have a Windows machine with a working Linux virtual machine on it, but following the instructions in the included Install files and on the Compiling wiki page has just run into errors I can't figure out how to fix. After downloading and extracting NetHack 3.6.7 on the virtual machine, I have run the following commands, beginning in the $Top directory:

$ cd sys/unix
$ sh setup.sh hints/linux
$ cd ../..
$ make all

which yielded the following error:

( cd src ; make )
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/wildfire/Downloads/nethack-3.6.0/src'
touch ../src/config.h-t
cc -g -O -I../include -DNOTPARMDECL -DCOMPRESS=\"/bin/gzip\" -DCOMPRESS_EXTENSION=\".gz\" -DDLB -DSYSCF -DSYSCF_FILE=\"/home/wildfire/nh/install/games/lib/nethackdir/sysconf\" -DSECURE -DHACKDIR=\"/home/wildfire/nh/install/games/lib/nethackdir\" -c monst.c
In file included from ../include/unixconf.h:290,
                 from ../include/global.h:115,
                 from ../include/config.h:458,
                 from monst.c:5:
/usr/include/stdlib.h:605:13: error: conflicting types for ‘srand48’; have ‘void(long int)’
  605 | extern void srand48 (long int __seedval) __THROW;
      |             ^~~~~~~
In file included from ../include/unixconf.h:287:
../include/system.h:94:8: note: previous declaration of ‘srand48’ with type ‘void(void)’
   94 | E void srand48();
      |        ^~~~~~~
In file included from ../include/unixconf.h:291:
/usr/include/unistd.h:464:21: error: conflicting types for ‘sleep’; have ‘unsigned int(unsigned int)’
  464 | extern unsigned int sleep (unsigned int __seconds);
      |                     ^~~~~
../include/system.h:354:12: note: previous declaration of ‘sleep’ with type ‘unsigned int(void)’
  354 | E unsigned sleep();
      |            ^~~~~
make[1]: *** [Makefile:528: monst.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/wildfire/Downloads/nethack-3.6.0/src'
make: *** [Makefile:145: nethack] Error 2

I already tried doing a completely fresh install, and I'm getting the same error. How do I fix this?

I think it would be fun to try a run (using Wizard mode) in which I start as a monster form and stay polymorphed the entire way through with an amulet of unchanging, but many interesting polyforms such as dragons start off so strong that they trivialize the earlygame. Is there any way to start as a weaker form, ex. a baby dragon, and then "grow up" into an adult dragon the same way monsters do without unpolymorphing? The "without unpolymorphing" part is important, because any stat boosts are lost upon unpolymorphing (or re-polymorphing!).

I'm playing 5.0.0, and now for some reason whenever I want to waste turns in an empty room (ie to time out debuffs), it will sometimes only let me rest a single turn and then display the text "Are you waiting to get hit? Use 'm' prefix to force a no-op (to rest)." When I do preface it with an 'm', it again only rests a single turn. I know it's possible to rest blocks of turns by prefacing with an 'n' and the number of turns to rest, but I'd really rather just manually hit '.' until I see the status clear. Is there any way to disable this behaviour so the prompt doesn't stop me from resting multiple turns in a row?