WANTED: logging of all file operations on Windows

[Claudio Grondi]

faulkner wrote:
> you want a directory watching daemon. it isn't hard at all to build
> from scratch.
> first, determine which directories should be watched.
> then, os.walk each directory, building a mapping from filename to mtime
> [modified time; os.path.getmtime].
> next is your main event loop. this while loop consists of os.walk-ing
> each directory again, comparing the current mtime to the corresponding
> entry in the mapping. if they differ, or if a filename isn't in the
> mapping, something happened, at which point you can logick out whether
> a file was moved, deleted, changed, or created.
> 
> so many folks have looked for this that i'll just write a generic one
> and put it in the cheeseshop. look for "dirmon" in about a week.

Yes, I _know_ about it and exactly this knowledge is the reason I am 
looking for tracking single file system related _events_ as I expect a 
professional operating system like Windows to provide such service. If 
there is none, this will be sure a severe reason to go for Linux if it 
has such one instead of going for a SVN server or special file systems 
if there are any.

Has someone experience with SVN handling million(s) of files?

The problem is, that brute force applied to large amount of 
files/directories is not a convenient way to backup/synchronize the few 
new/changed/deleted/moved files/directories multiple times a day as the 
brute force approach just makes the hard drive(s) unnecessary wasting 
much energy and getting hot.

Claudio Grondi
> 
> 
> Claudio Grondi wrote:
> 
>>I am aware, that it is maybe the wrong group to ask this question, but
>>as I would like to know the history of past file operations from within
>>a Python script I see a chance, that someone in this group was into it
>>already and is so kind to share here his experience.
>>
>>I have put already much efforts into this subject googling around, but
>>up to now in vain. Best option I encountered yet is usage of
>>the Greyware 'System Change Log' service which monitors disks for
>>changes (http://www.greyware.com/software/systemchangelog/index.asp),
>>but in own tests it turned out, that the created log file does not cover
>>all file events as e.g. it is not possible to detect when a file is
>>moved to a new directory (creation of a new file is logged, but deletion
>>is not, not mentioning I would expect a file 'move' event).
>>The own Windows logging service rejected to start on my XP SP2 system
>>for unknown to me reasons - I don't know how to get it to work (yes, I
>>have used the administrator account).
>>
>>I can't believe, that using NTFS file system in Microsoft Windows 2000
>>or XP it is not possible to track file events as:
>>
>>- updating/modifying of an existing file/directory
>>- deleting an existing file/directory
>>- creating a new file/directory
>>- _moving_ an existing file/directory (should _NOT_ be covered by the
>>event duo of  deleting an existing and creating a new file/directory)
>>
>>Any hints towards enlightenment?
>>
>>Claudio Grondi
> 
>