Creating a dictionary from log file records

[Roy.Culley at switzerland.org]

I'm new to python and am trying to convert a perl script which analyses
firewall logs to python as a learning exercise.

The log files contain lines of multiple key / value pairs such as:

    interface qfe0 proto tcp src 1.1.1.1 dst 2.2.2.2 service smtp \
        s_port 44008 len 44 rule 7

Not all records are the same and the key / value pairs are not at
fixed positions. In perl, assuming the line is in $_, I can do:

    %Rec = split

Is there an equivalent simple way to do this with python? I've done
it by converting the data into a list and using a while loop to set
the dictionary entries. However, the log files have about 4 million
entries per day so I need something that is fast.

Any help / suggestions most appreciated.