Only Filtering for Interesting Event Logs

[wbordeau]

Is there a way to express a series of exclude filters as variable in a search?

What I want to do is create a search and eventually an alert that will trigger on all Event Log Warnings and Errors until I exclude them one by one in the search. I realize the search string would grow impossibly long so I want to know if there is a way to condense the excluded filters and represent them with a single constant or variable that would be updated and vetted on an ongoing basis.

Having this type of search would only yield events that I don't yet know about that could be important for me to investigate while at the same time filter out events I already know about and can safely ignore.

I'm open to other alternatives but this is basically the impetus of what I want to accomplish.

[sdaniels · Accepted solution]

You could use a macro and update it over time as you add various known filters. That would simplify your search string.

http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/5.0/Search/Usesearchmacros#Create_search_macros_in_Splun...

[sdaniels]

It looks like it's not about the number of characters. Take a look.
http://splunk-base.splunk.com/answers/8399/what-is-the-max-character-limit-for-a-macro

[wbordeau]

Sounds like an excellent solution. Do you know if there is a character limit in a Macro? If so, I imagine at some point I would need to string them together in series.