How to Install IFM on NetBSD

IFM (Interactive Fiction Manager) is a powerful tool for managing and playing interactive fiction. It allows you to easily browse and select games, manage your library, and launch your favorite IF interpreters from one convenient interface. In this tutorial, we will walk through the steps to install IFM onto a NetBSD system.

Prerequisites

• A NetBSD-based system (confirmed to work on NetBSD 9.2)
• An internet connection

Step 1: Install dependencies

IFM relies on a number of Perl modules to function properly. To install these dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo pkgin install perl5 perl5-Module-Build
sudo cpanm YAML::Tiny Term::Readline::Gnu

Step 2: Download IFM

Navigate to the IFM GitHub repository at https://github.com/misterunknown/ifm and download the latest release (e.g. ifm-5.2.2.tar.gz) to your home directory.

cd ~
curl -O -L https://github.com/misterunknown/ifm/archive/v5.2.2.tar.gz

Step 3: Extract and Install IFM

Extract the downloaded tarball and navigate into the extracted directory.

tar -zxvf v5.2.2.tar.gz
cd ifm-5.2.2/

Run the provided install script to configure and install IFM.

perl Build.PL
./Build
sudo ./Build install

You should now be able to launch IFM by simply typing ifm on the command line.

Step 4: Set up the IF interpreter

IFM is designed to work with a variety of IF interpreters, but it does require you to configure at least one interpreter to get started. For this tutorial, we will use the open-source interpreter Frotz.

Install the frotz package using pkgin.

sudo pkgin install frotz

With frotz installed, we can add it to the list of interpreters in IFM's configuration file.

vim ~/.ifmrc

Add the following lines to the end of the file:

# Frotz interpreter configuration
ifinterpreter.add(frotz => {
    bin => "/usr/pkg/bin/frotz",
    opt => "-p",
    ext => "z3",
    desc => "Frotz interpreter for Z-machine games"
});

Save the file and exit.

Step 5: Launch IFM

With IFM and frotz properly configured, we're ready to test things out.

Launch IFM by typing ifm on the command line.

ifm

You should see the IFM interface appear. Use the arrow keys to navigate through the list of available games, select a game and hit enter to start playing.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured IFM on your NetBSD system. Enjoy your interactive fiction adventures!

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