why don't my srf files work any more?

Question

Using Agent Ransack build 816, my saved searches no longer work properly. Here's an example:

file names with strings
.(wpd|jpg|tif|dat|doc|docx|txt|pdf|rtf|odp|djvu|odt|htm|html|lnk|ppt|xls|pptx|wpg|psd)$

containing text: (delete.+wherever.+found)

look in: c:\wpdocs\;c:\my pictures\;c:\users\Tiesenhausen\Downloads\;c:\addresse\;c:\my presentations\;c:\shortcuts\;c:\indices\;c:\my roboform data\;c:\users\tiesenhausen\dropbox\;c:\archives\;c:\wordperfect files\;c:\users\tiesenhausen\skydrive\

modified after: 4/19/2014

I know that in the folders listed there are numerous (maybe 30-40)files containing the search text. This srf, and a dozen or so others like it, have worked like a charm for years, but the last time I ran this only one file, a "ptt", was found--no jpgs, tifs, wpds, etc.

Finding files marked for deletion is pretty important to me frequently. Presumably my present srfs are failing because some change has been in the program, but the program does not indicate or flag any problem. Surely if there is now something wrong with the srf, Agent Ransack should indicate an error.

Answer 1

If a saved SRF file is no longer finding a file I imagine that it's down to a configuration option change. By default Agent Ransack only loads the search criteria and not the configuration settings. You can however force it to load both with the -pc switch, e.g.

AgentRansack.exe SavedSearch.srf -pc

Your configuration options will then be set to those used at the time of saving the SRF file.