Cfilter match from begginning of line

Question

Say I have entries like this in the quickfix window:

manage.py|7 col 54| os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'dist.plug.from.settings')
project/urls.py|29 col 6| from dist.plug.apps import PlugConfig
project/urls.py|30 col 6| from dist.plug.urls import dist_urlpatterns
project/wsgi.py|15 col 50| os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'dist.plug.from.settings')
config/cfg3_distro.py|15 col 10| from dist.plug.cfg1_custom import Custom
apps_web/csslib/cprops.py|5 col 6| from dist.plug.theme import theme
core/accounts/admin.py|10 col 6| from dist.plug.user import UserAdminMixin
core/accounts/models.py|4 col 6| from dist.plug.user import UserMixin
core/accounts/utils.py|1 col 6| from dist.plug.user import UserMixin

I wish to keep all entries that don't start with from.

:h Cfilter does not explain whether the filter matches the whole line (i.e. file name, line/col and line), or just the line. So I tried both ways but neither is working for me:

If it matches the whole line I tried:

• :Cfilter! /| from/ matches nothing (all remain)
• :Cfilter! /\| from/ matches everything (nothing remains)

If it matches just the line from the file, I tried:

• :Cfilter! /^from/ matches some (some starting with from are removed, but some with from in the start remain, not sure what it did)
• :Cfilter! /\^from/ matches nothing (all remain)

Confused as to whats going on, I must be missing something.

Answer 1

Instead of removing all the entries that don't start with from, use Cfilter (without !) to keep all the entries that start with from.

The |:Cfilter| command creates a new quickfix list from the entries matching {pat} in the current quickfix list. {pat} is a Vim |regular-expression| pattern. Both the file name and the text of the entries are matched against {pat}. If the optional ! is supplied, then the entries not matching {pat} are used. The pattern can be optionally enclosed using one of the following

As for the format, this should work correctly: :Cfilter /^from/