Reference

play.it(6)

Installer for drm-free commercial games

NAME

./play.it – Installer for drm-free commercial games

SYNOPSIS

./play.it [--checksum md5 | none] [--collection-path path] [--compression none | speed | size | auto] [--config-file path] [--no-free-space-check] [--no-icons] [--no-mtree] [--output-dir path] [--overwrite] [--package arch | deb | gentoo | egentoo] [--prefix path] [--tmpdir path] archive

./play.it [--collection-path path] [--list-packages] [--list-requirements] [--show-game-script] archive

./play.it [--collection-path path] [--list-available-scripts] [--list-supported-games] [--version]

DESCRIPTION

./play.it is a free software building native packages from installers for Windows or Linux, mainly those sold by stores focusing on DRM-free games distribution. The goal is that a game installed via ./play.it is indistinguishable from a game installed via the official repositories of your favorite distribution.

The games are installed globally on multi-user systems, avoiding unnecessary duplication. The locations of save games, settings, mods, temporary files and backups are standardized with XDG Base Directory support.

Packaging the games simplifies future updates, uninstalls and handling of any necessary dependencies, including integrated obsolete dependencies if specific versions are needed.

Options

--checksum md5 | none

Archive integrity verification method selection.

md5

md5sum verification

none

no verification

--compression none | speed | size | auto

Generated packages compression method selection.

none

no compression

speed

compression method focusing on compression speed

size

compression method focusing on size reduction

auto

default compression method on the current system

--prefix path

Game installation path setting.

This option accepts an absolute path only.

--package arch | deb | gentoo | egentoo

Generated package type selection.

arch

.pkg.tar package (Arch Linux)

deb

.deb package (Debian, Ubuntu)

gentoo

.tbz2 package (Gentoo)

egentoo

.tar package with an associated .ebuild (Gentoo)

--no-icons

Do not include game icons.

--overwrite

Replace packages if they already exist.

--output-dir path

Set the output directory for generated packages.

--no-mtree

Do not create .MTREE files in Arch Linux packages. As these files contain a hash of every file in the package, they may be quite long to create when dealing with big games.

--tmpdir path

Set the directory used for temporary files storage. Default value is: TMPDIR

--no-free-space-check

Do not check for free space.

--collection-path path

Limit the search for game scripts to a given path.

--show-game-script

Only display the name of the game script to use, without running it.

--config-file path

Set the configuration file path. Default path is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/play.it/config or $HOME/config/play.it/config if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is unset. Configuration file contains list of additional command-line parameters that will be passed to ./play.it as if they were given on the command-line.

--list-packages

Print the list of packages to build.

--list-requirements

Print the list of commands required to build packages from the given archive.

--list-available-scripts

Print the list of game scripts available on this system.

--list-supported-games

Print the list of supported games. Warning: this operation can take several minutes.

ENVIRONMENT

PLAYIT_LIB2

If set, overrides the provided version of libplayit2.sh (and its supported games) to a local copy for development. (default: /usr/share/games/play.it/libplayit2.sh)

TMPDIR

Default place where temporary files are processed. (default: /tmp)

XDG_CONFIG_HOME

Used in the configuration file default path.

FILES

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/play.it/config

Default path to the configuration file. This file contains a list of additional command-line parameters that will be passed to ./play.it as if they were given on the command-line.

COMPRESSION

Arch Linux

When building packages for Arch Linux (with --package arch):

--compression speed

Use zstd compression with the flag --fast=1.

--compression size

Use zstd compression with the flag -19.

--compression auto

Unsupported option.

Debian

When building packages for Debian (with --package deb):

--compression speed

Use gzip compression.

--compression size

Use xz compression.

--compression auto

Rely on the default dpkg-deb behaviour. This behaviour can be controlled using the environment variables DPKG_DEB_THREADS_MAX, DPKG_DEB_COMPRESSOR_TYPE and DPKG_DEB_COMPRESSOR_LEVEL. See dpkg-deb(1) for more details on how these can be used.

Gentoo

When building packages for Gentoo (with --package gentoo or --package egentoo)

--compression speed

Use gzip compression.

--compression size

Use bzip2 compression.

--compression auto

Rely on the default ebuild behaviour. This behaviour can be controlled using the environment variables BINPKG_COMPRESS and BINPKG_COMPRESS_FLAGS. See make.conf(5) for more details on how these can be used.

History

--collection-path since Debian 13 (Trixie); --config-file since Debian 13 (Trixie); --list-available-scripts since Debian 13 (Trixie); --list-packages since Debian 13 (Trixie); --list-requirements since Debian 13 (Trixie); --list-supported-games since Debian 13 (Trixie); --no-free-space-check since Debian 13 (Trixie); --no-icons since Debian 13 (Trixie); --no-mtree since Debian 13 (Trixie); --output-dir since Debian 13 (Trixie); --overwrite since Debian 13 (Trixie); --prefix since Debian 13 (Trixie); --show-game-script since Debian 13 (Trixie); --tmpdir since Debian 13 (Trixie).