FREESWEEP(6)

💖 NAME 💖

okay bestie, so you know that one game where you click squares and pray? yeah. this is the manual page for freesweep, and it lives in section 6 of the Games Manual. it's a curses minesweeper-style game. that's the whole vibe. 🎀

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

there are, like, four whole ways to summon this thing. pick your fighter:

freesweep
      [-% value] [-a] [-f | -i] [-h value] [-m value] [-s] [-w value]
      [--alt-charset] [--fast] [--height=value]
      [--interactive | --save-prefs] [--mines=value] [--percent=value]
      [--width=value]

freesweep
      [-a] [-b | -d] [--alt-charset]
      [--dump-best-times | --show-best-times]

freesweep
      [-a] [-g] [--show-gpl]

freesweep
      [-v] [--version]

freesweep
      [-H] [--help]

---

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

freesweep is a curses-based minesweeper game for *nix. that's it. that's the description. short and iconic, we love her 💅

---

🦋 OPTIONS 🦋

every single flag, no skips, no cuts, no cap fr fr:

• -% value, --percent=value — sets the number of mines to value percent of the number of squares on the board, rounded to the nearest integer. 🧮 you literally cannot use this one together with -m or --mines. pick a lane bestie.
• -a, --alt-charset — switches the character sets between standard ASCII and PC-style linedraw characters. using this on the command line means "yo, use the set that is NOT the one specified in the preferences file." check the FILES section below for the tea. also — you can toggle the character set mid-game with the a key, which is a lifesaver when your terminal just doesn't have the PC-style linedraw set. see the COMMANDS section below. 😭
• -b, --show-best-times — pulls up the curses best times viewer instead of starting a game, then exits. the best times viewer is also reachable during play with the b key. see COMMANDS below. 🏆
• -d, --dump-best-times — prints the list of best times to stdout, sorted in descending order. more info about the column format will get added to this manual page once it's been clearly established. so like… stay tuned. 🙈
• -f, --fast — skips the interactive dialog that normally runs at the start. ⚡ that means every single value has to come from either the command line or the preferences files. no dialog, no hand-holding.
• -g, --show-gpl — displays the GNU General Public License in a nice curses page viewer. currently version 2 of the license is what gets shown; BUT freesweep is licensed under version 2 or later of the GNU GPL, so this could get superseded in the future. slay, legal flexibility 👑
• -H, --help — prints the list of valid command line options, then exits. 🫶
• -h value, --height=value — sets the height to value. if the interactive dialog runs at the start, whatever you passed for height gets listed as the default. 📏
• -i, --interactive — forces the interactive menu to run at the start. this mainly exists to override the FastStart option in the preferences file. it cannot be used with the -f-fP or --fast options. 💀
• -m value, --mines=value — sets the number of mines to value. this one cannot be used with the -% or --percent options. 💣
• -s, --save-prefs — saves any preferences passed on the command line. this is normally used alongside the FastStart option (specified with -f or --fast). 💾
• -v, --version — displays version information and exits. using this option overrides all other options. she's the main character, periodt. ✨
• -w value, --width=value — sets the width to value. if the interactive dialog runs at the start, whatever you passed for width gets listed as the default. 📐

---

👑 COMMANDS 👑

when you start it normally, freesweep runs a dialog to ask the player all of this: the height and width of the board, the number of mines (as either an integer or in terms of the size of the board), whether PC-style line drawing characters should be used, whether future games should use FastStart mode, how to announce alerts (beep, visual bell, or none), and whether the newly entered preferences should be saved. 💅

that dialog gets skipped entirely if the -f or --fast flags are passed, or if the FastStart option is selected in the preference file. bye bestie 👋

in normal play, freesweep just waits for keystrokes and then reacts based on whatever value it got. some keystrokes can be modified by an integer that comes before them — those are marked below with a preceding n. the following keystroke values are valid:

• n<arrow key>, nh, nj, nk, nl — the arrow keys move the cursor n squares in the corresponding direction, limited by the boundaries of the playing field. a warning gets issued if that happens. the default integer is one. the vi-style motion keys h, j, k, and l are also accepted, and they're equivalent to the arrow keys. 🕹️
• a — toggles between the standard ASCII character set and PC-style linedraw. 🎨
• b — displays the best times list, one screenful at a time. the game clock is suspended for the whole duration of the best times viewer. ⏸️🏆
• g — displays the GNU General Public License, version 2. the game clock is suspended for the duration of the GPL viewing. the text shows up one screenful at a time; q returns you to game play, and any other key advances to the next screenful. 📜
• ? — displays a help screen with a listing of valid commands. the game clock is suspended for the duration of this screen too. ❓
• f — toggles flagging the current square as a mine. flagged squares cannot be exposed. 🚩
• <space> — ngl the manpage lists this key and then just… says nothing about it. that's all the info we got, bestie 🙈

---

🎀 FILES 🎀

• ~/.sweeprc — the user's sweep resource file. 📄
• ~/.sweeptimes — the user's sweep best times file. ⏱️
• /etc/sweeprc — the global default sweep resource file. 🌍
• /var/games/sweeptimes — the shared best times file. 🤝

and here's the order of operations, so listen up: the global preference file is read first, then the player's preference file. any command line options are considered next, and lastly any input from the interactive dialog. that's the pecking order, periodt. 👑

---

💜 AUTHORS 💜

• Gus Hartmann <hartmann@upl.cs.wisc.edu>
• Pete Keller <psilord@upl.cs.wisc.edu>

---

🌈 CREDITS 🌈

this program would not have been written had there been more machines capable of running X Windows in the lab where the author learned to program — that's the Undergraduate Project Lab at the University of Wisconsin Department of Computer Sciences. iconic origin story honestly 🫶

---

💀 BUGS 💀

• the best times code is currently only partially implemented. 😭
• the viewer for the GNU GPL and the best times cannot go backwards. no rewind, only forward. 💀
• this manual page always includes the GNU-style long options, even on systems which do not support them. 🙈
• other bugs should be reported to <sweep@cs.wisc.edu>. 📬

---

and that's the whole page bestie!! brought to you by Gus Hartmann & Pete Keller, Version 0.86 ✨ go forth and sweep, you absolute legend 💅🎀🦋