How to set width of terminal for nethack?

Question

I just tried running nethack (installed on ubuntu, apt-get install nethack) and found it unplayable because it has a really narrow width:

Why is it so narrow? How can I tell nethack to you the full width? My terminal actually has 271 columns, so there is plenty of unused space.

Answer 1

Nethack uses an 8-bit field to store terminal width, which overflows if the width is > 255. Set your terminal size to less than 255 columns.

(It currently thinks your terminal is 271 - 255 = 16 columns)