Is there any documentation for Xilinx (ISE) filter files?

I'm looking for a documentation on Xilinx ISE *.filter files.

Here is a short example of a Message/Warning/Error filter entry:

<filter task="xst" file="HDLCompiler" num="1127" type="warning">
  <arg index="1">button_center</arg>
</filter>

In this case the interpretation is easy: Filter a XST message with WarningID 1127 and severity Warning which is cause by design entity "button_center".

This can be extended by filtering with wildcards:

<arg index="1" match_type="wildcard">ATACapability_*</arg>

So the arg-Tag is extended with a match_type and the tag value has some wildcards. This is also understandable.

But in some cases there are several arg-tags in one filter-tag:

<filter task="xst" file="Xst" num="1896" type="warning">
  <arg index="1" match_type="wildcard">LCDBuffer_d*</arg>
  <arg index="2">0</arg>
  <arg index="3" match_type="wildcard">*</arg>
</filter>

What does this mean?

Solution

A message in a Xilinx report can have multiple arguments (arg tags). Hence, if you create a filter with multiple arguments, each argument of the filter applies to an argument of the message. Different arguments in messages might be path to a source file, or a line number in a source file. E.g.:

<msg type="info" file="Xst" num="3210" delta="new" >&quot;
<arg fmt="%s" index="1">
/path/to/some/file.vhd
</arg>

&quot; line 

<arg fmt="%s" index="2">
171
</arg>

: Output port &lt;

<arg fmt="%s" index="3">
TExxDO&lt;3&gt;
</arg>

&gt; of the instance &lt;

<arg fmt="%s" index="4">
Core0
</arg>

&gt; is unconnected or connected to loadless signal.

</msg>

Depending on which version of ISE you use, you can find manuals, like:

http://www.xilinx.com/itp/xilinx10/isehelp/ise_db_ds_msg_filters_dialog.htm