4

I would like to read Windows' event log. I am not sure if it's the best way but I would like to use the pywin32 -> win32evtlog module to do so. First and foremost is it possible to read logs from Windows 7 using this library and if so how to read events associated with applications runs (running an .exe must leave a trace in the event log in windows i guess).

I have managed to find some little example on the net but it's not enough for me and the documentation isn't well written unfortunately ;/

import win32evtlog

hand = win32evtlog.OpenEventLog(None,"Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational")
print win32evtlog.GetNumberOfEventLogRecords(hand)

1 Answer 1

11

you can find plenty of demos related to the winapi in your C:\PythonXX\Lib\site-packages\win32\Demos folder. In this folder you'll find a script named eventLogDemo.py. There you can see how to use win32evtlog module. Just start this script with eventLogDemo.py -v and you will get prints from your Windows event log with logtype Application.

In case you can't find this script:

import win32evtlog
import win32api
import win32con
import win32security # To translate NT Sids to account names.

import win32evtlogutil

def ReadLog(computer, logType="Application", dumpEachRecord = 0):
    # read the entire log back.
    h=win32evtlog.OpenEventLog(computer, logType)
    numRecords = win32evtlog.GetNumberOfEventLogRecords(h)
#       print "There are %d records" % numRecords

    num=0
    while 1:
        objects = win32evtlog.ReadEventLog(h, win32evtlog.EVENTLOG_BACKWARDS_READ|win32evtlog.EVENTLOG_SEQUENTIAL_READ, 0)
        if not objects:
            break
        for object in objects:
            # get it for testing purposes, but dont print it.
            msg = win32evtlogutil.SafeFormatMessage(object, logType)
            if object.Sid is not None:
                try:
                    domain, user, typ = win32security.LookupAccountSid(computer, object.Sid)
                    sidDesc = "%s/%s" % (domain, user)
                except win32security.error:
                    sidDesc = str(object.Sid)
                user_desc = "Event associated with user %s" % (sidDesc,)
            else:
                user_desc = None
            if dumpEachRecord:
                print "Event record from %r generated at %s" % (object.SourceName, object.TimeGenerated.Format())
                if user_desc:
                    print user_desc
                try:
                    print msg
                except UnicodeError:
                    print "(unicode error printing message: repr() follows...)"
                    print repr(msg)

        num = num + len(objects)

    if numRecords == num:
        print "Successfully read all", numRecords, "records"
    else:
        print "Couldn't get all records - reported %d, but found %d" % (numRecords, num)
        print "(Note that some other app may have written records while we were running!)"
    win32evtlog.CloseEventLog(h)

def usage():
    print "Writes an event to the event log."
    print "-w : Dont write any test records."
    print "-r : Dont read the event log"
    print "-c : computerName : Process the log on the specified computer"
    print "-v : Verbose"
    print "-t : LogType - Use the specified log - default = 'Application'"


def test():
    # check if running on Windows NT, if not, display notice and terminate
    if win32api.GetVersion() & 0x80000000:
        print "This sample only runs on NT"
        return

    import sys, getopt
    opts, args = getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1:], "rwh?c:t:v")
    computer = None
    do_read = do_write = 1

    logType = "Application"
    verbose = 0

    if len(args)>0:
        print "Invalid args"
        usage()
        return 1
    for opt, val in opts:
        if opt == '-t':
            logType = val
        if opt == '-c':
            computer = val
        if opt in ['-h', '-?']:
            usage()
            return
        if opt=='-r':
            do_read = 0
        if opt=='-w':
            do_write = 0
        if opt=='-v':
            verbose = verbose + 1
    if do_write:
        ph=win32api.GetCurrentProcess()
        th = win32security.OpenProcessToken(ph,win32con.TOKEN_READ)
        my_sid = win32security.GetTokenInformation(th,win32security.TokenUser)[0]

        win32evtlogutil.ReportEvent(logType, 2,
            strings=["The message text for event 2","Another insert"],
            data = "Raw\0Data".encode("ascii"), sid = my_sid)
        win32evtlogutil.ReportEvent(logType, 1, eventType=win32evtlog.EVENTLOG_WARNING_TYPE,
            strings=["A warning","An even more dire warning"],
            data = "Raw\0Data".encode("ascii"), sid = my_sid)
        win32evtlogutil.ReportEvent(logType, 1, eventType=win32evtlog.EVENTLOG_INFORMATION_TYPE,
            strings=["An info","Too much info"],
            data = "Raw\0Data".encode("ascii"), sid = my_sid)
        print("Successfully wrote 3 records to the log")

    if do_read:
        ReadLog(computer, logType, verbose > 0)

if __name__=='__main__':
    test()

I hope this script fits your needs

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.