# Forum:Help finding .dat file
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I am pretty new at looking at the code for NetHack, so I need some help. How do I access the dat file with all of the .des files in it? 
For background information, I have NetHack through apt-get install on a Linux system.
Thanks!
A Person (talk) 01:00, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

You don't. the nhdat -file contains multiple data files, but it doesn't contain the plain text des-files, but binary lev-files compiled with lev_comp. --paxed (talk) 04:00, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
By "through apt-get install" ... if you got it simply through "sudo apt-get install nethack", then you presumably have the binaries.  If you want to modify it, you'd need the source code, and the ability to compile it. --HarJIT (talk) 17:30, 17 April 2015 (UTC)
How do you find the plain text files then? 
---- Preceding unsigned comment added by A Person (talk)

They are in the source code distribution available from the NetHack website in the nethack-3.4.3/dat/ folder.  If you modify them, you will need to compile your modified NetHack yourself for to use them. --HarJIT (talk) 17:26, 17 April 2015 (UTC)