README

   1 1. What
   2
   3 Nagios-mode is an Emacs mode for editing Nagios[1] configuration
   4 files. You probably already know that, or you wouldn't be reading
   5 this. But maybe you just love Emacs, and you go around looking for
   6 things that end in -mode. Then you README them.
   7
   8 So, Nagios is monitoring software that is configured via plain-text
   9 (*.cfg) files. They have a C-like syntax, and a bunch of special
  10 keywords. Nagios mode will apply syntax highlighting to these
  11 configuration files, possibly alerting you to the fact that you have
  12 done something stupid. Moreover, the buffers will look prettier.
  13
  14 [1] http://www.nagios.org/
  15
  16
  17 2. Where
  18
  19 Stick nagios-mode.el somewhere, and add that place to your Emacs load
  20 path. For example,
  21
  22   (setq load-path
  23     (append (list "~/.home/emacs/modes/nagios-mode/")
  24       load-path))
  25
  26 is how I do it. With that in your load path, you just have to add
  27 nagios-mode to your auto-load list,
  28
  29   (autoload 'nagios-mode "nagios-mode" nil t)
  30
  31 And tell Emacs to use it automatically when editing *.cfg files,
  32
  33   (setq auto-mode-alist
  34     (append (list '("\\.cfg$" . nagios-mode))
  35       auto-mode-alist))
  36
  37 which is great as long as you don't have other *.cfg files with a
  38 different syntax. That case is left as an exercise for the reader.
  39
  40
  41 3. How
  42
  43 The macros and object definitions are parsed from the Nagios source
  44 code. Object definitions are found within xdata/xodtemplate.h, while
  45 the macros are cleverly hidden within include/macros.h. Once they have
  46 been parsed, they are cuth and pasteth in to nagios-mode.
  47
  48 The directives (or variables) are another story. There is no obvious
  49 way to parse the object variables from the source code. So, it's done
  50 the old-fashioned way: I use nagios-mode until I notice that one of my
  51 variables isn't highlighted. Then I add it. You can mail me these and
  52 I will probably add them.
  53
  54
  55 4. When
  56
  57 No seriously, I'm running out of words to use as headings. Send bug
  58 reports and feature requests to michael@orlitzky.com.