1. What

Nagios-mode is an Emacs mode for editing Nagios[1] configuration
files. You probably already know that, or you wouldn't be reading
this. But maybe you just love Emacs, and you go around looking for
things that end in -mode. Then you README them.

So, Nagios is monitoring software that is configured via plain-text
(*.cfg) files. They have a C-like syntax, and a bunch of special
keywords. Nagios mode will apply syntax highlighting to these
configuration files, possibly alerting you to the fact that you have
done something stupid. Moreover, the buffers will look prettier.

[1] http://www.nagios.org/


2. Where

Stick nagios-mode.el somewhere, and add that place to your Emacs load
path. For example,

  (setq load-path
    (append (list "~/.home/emacs/modes/nagios-mode/")			
      load-path))

is how I do it. With that in your load path, you just have to add
nagios-mode to your auto-load list,

  (autoload 'nagios-mode "nagios-mode" nil t)

And tell Emacs to use it automatically when editing *.cfg files,

  (setq auto-mode-alist
    (append (list '("\\.cfg$" . nagios-mode))
      auto-mode-alist))

which is great as long as you don't have other *.cfg files with a
different syntax. That case is left as an exercise for the reader.


3. How

The macros and object definitions are parsed from the Nagios source
code. Object definitions are found within xdata/xodtemplate.h, while
the macros are cleverly hidden within include/macros.h. Once they have
been parsed, they are cuth and pasteth in to nagios-mode.

The directives (or variables) are another story. There is no obvious
way to parse the object variables from the source code. So, it's done
the old-fashioned way: I use nagios-mode until I notice that one of my
variables isn't highlighted. Then I add it. You can mail me these and
I will probably add them.


4. When

No seriously, I'm running out of words to use as headings. Send bug
reports and feature requests to michael@orlitzky.com.