/jEdit/tags/jedit-4-0-pre5/doc/users-guide/installing-modes.xml

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<chapter id="installing-modes"><title>Installing Edit Modes</title>
 <para>
  jEdit looks for edit modes in two locations; the
  <filename>modes</filename> subdirectory of
  the jEdit settings directory, and the
  <filename>modes</filename> subdirectory of the jEdit install directory.
  The location of the settings directory is system-specific;
  see <xref linkend="settings-directory" />.
 </para>
 <para>
  Each mode directory contains a <filename>catalog</filename> file. All edit
  modes contained in that directory must be listed in the catalog, otherwise
  they will not be available to jEdit.
 </para>
 <para>
  Catalogs, like modes themselves, are written in XML. They consist of a
  single <literal>MODES</literal>
  tag, with a number of <literal>MODE</literal> tags inside. Each mode tag
  associates a mode name with an XML file, and specifies the file name
  and first line pattern for the mode. A sample mode catalog looks like
  follows:
 </para>
 <programlisting><![CDATA[<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE CATALOG SYSTEM "catalog.dtd">

<MODES>
    <MODE NAME="shellscript" FILE="shellscript.xml"
        FILE_NAME_GLOB="*.sh"
        FIRST_LINE_GLOB="#!/*sh*" />
</MODES>]]></programlisting>
 <para>
  In the above example, a mode named <quote>shellscript</quote> is
  defined, and is used for files whose names end with
  <filename>.sh</filename>, or
  whose first line starts with <quote>#!/</quote> and contains
  <quote>sh</quote>.
 </para>
 <para>
  The <literal>MODE</literal> tag supports the following attributes:
 </para>
 <itemizedlist>
  <listitem><para><literal>NAME</literal> - the name of the edit mode, as it
  will appear in the <guimenuitem>Buffer Options</guimenuitem> dialog box, the
  status bar, and so on</para></listitem>
  <listitem><para><literal>FILE</literal> - the name of the XML file
  containing the mode definition</para></listitem>
  <listitem><para><literal>FILE_NAME_GLOB</literal> - files whose names match
  this glob pattern will be opened in this edit mode. See
  <xref linkend="globs" /> for information about glob patterns</para></listitem>
  <listitem><para><literal>FIRST_LINE_GLOB</literal> - files whose first line
  matches
  this glob pattern will be opened in this edit mode. See
  <xref linkend="globs" /> for information about glob patterns</para></listitem>
 </itemizedlist>
 <para>
  If an edit mode is defined in the user-specific catalog with the same name as
  an edit mode in the global catalog, the version in the user-specific catalog
  will be used instead of the other version.
 </para>
</chapter>