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Saved Filters & Alerts

A saved filter is a search you can run again by name: the pattern plus the .*, Aa, and W options. Saved filters are not tied to a file, so you can run them on any file you open. Turn on a filter’s alert to get a notification when a growing log file gains new lines that match it.

Saved filters live in the search panel’s actions row. To show the row, open the search panel (Ctrl + F) and select More actions (…). For the panel itself, see Searching a file.

Section titled “Save a search”

  1. Run the search you want to keep.

  2. In the actions row, select Save.

  3. Type a name in the Filter name… box, then press Enter or select OK. Press Esc to cancel.

The filter stores the text in the search box and the state of .*, Aa, W, Multi, 0x, and Str. For a strings search it also stores the minimum length and the 16 option. Save is not available for the result of a combined search.

You can save up to 100 filters. Two filters can have the same name.

Run a saved filter

Section titled “Run a saved filter”

When at least one filter exists, the actions row shows Saved with the number of filters, for example Saved (3). Select it to open the list, then select a filter’s name. Vaste puts the filter’s pattern in the search box, sets every option to match the filter, including 0x and Str, and runs the search.

Delete a saved filter

Section titled “Delete a saved filter”

Open the Saved list and select the trash icon (Delete saved filter) next to the filter. Vaste deletes it at once, without asking. A filter cannot be renamed: save the search again under the new name, then delete the old filter.

Alerts while tailing

Section titled “Alerts while tailing”

An alert runs a saved filter on the lines that a reload adds to the end of the file, and shows a notification when they match. Use alerts to watch a log file that another program is writing.

To turn an alert on or off, open the Saved list and select the bell next to the filter. The tooltip shows Alert while tailing is on or Alert while tailing is off. Alerts are off for new filters.

When an alert runs

Section titled “When an alert runs”

Vaste checks the alerts each time it reloads the file:

  • When the file changes on disk and the Auto reload setting is on. It is on by default.
  • When you press Ctrl + R or select Reload.

The alert runs only when the reload added lines to the end of the file and left the rest unchanged, and the added part is no larger than 64 MiB. It searches only the new lines.

No alert runs in these cases:

  • The file was truncated, rotated, or rewritten.
  • The file is encoded as UTF-16.
  • The filter is a hex byte or strings search. These filters show a dimmed bell that cannot be turned on.

The alert notification

Section titled “The alert notification”

For each filter that matches, Vaste shows a notification such as 3 new matches for ‘errors’, in place of the notification for the new lines. The number counts matches, not lines. Select Jump to go to the first new line that matches: Vaste switches to Text view, leaves Grep view if it is open, and scrolls to the line.

If the same filter matches again before its notification closes, the notification updates instead of adding another one. Like other notifications, it closes after 5 seconds. There is no sound and no system notification.

If the alert cannot run, a notification shows Alert scan failed and the reason.

For how reloading works, see Live reload.

Filters across sessions and windows

Section titled “Filters across sessions and windows”

Vaste saves your filters in its data folder, so they are still there after you restart Vaste. See Data and cache locations.

Each window reads the saved filters when it opens. A filter you save or change in one window appears in other open windows after you close and reopen them.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”