== What this is ==

Nagios-mode is an Emacs mode for editing Nagios configuration
files. Nagios is monitoring software that is configured via plain-text
(*.cfg) files. Those configuration files have a C-like syntax, and a
bunch of special keywords. Witin Emacs, nagios-mode will apply syntax
highlighting to them, possibly alerting you to the fact that you have
done something wrong, and making your buffers look pretty in any case.


== How to install it ==

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 works great so long as you don't work with any other *.cfg files
that have a different syntax.


== How it works ==

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.


== Bugs et cetera ==

Send all bug reports, feature requests, and unprompted criticism to
michael@orlitzky.com.