Directory & File Monitoring

[djw]

Peter Hansen wrote:

> Steve wrote:
>> 
>> Hi;
>> 
>> I would like to write a python script for windows 2000 that will log
>> who/what touches a particular file in a particular directory.
>> 
>> Is this possible with python alone or do I need to access some Windows
>> api( and which one?)?
> 
> Probably not possible with Python alone, and certainly not something
> that will be portable (not that you seem to mind).
> 
> Can you define what "touch" means?  Do you mean even looking at the
> file, or do you mean in the more technical sense of the "touch"
> utility, where at least the timestamp is modified?  Or do you just
> want to know if the contents are actually changed?  What about if
> the file is deleted?
> 
> Also, what do you mean by "who" and "what"?  The name of the
> application that is doing the touching, and the userid of the
> authenticated user who is running that application?
> 
> Maybe even more useful would be for us to understand better why you
> want to do this.  It's an unusual thing to want to do at the user
> level (i.e. not as part of an OS security/logging feature) and
> maybe there's a better solution.
> 
> -Peter

Would this work for you?

http://sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/filemon.shtml

Not Python, but it accomplishes what you are after.

Don