Reading UserID and IP mapping with python on Active Directory

Question

I have a project and I try to find correct algoritm and method for that.

I have a file called ADUserIPmap.txt which is located one of the Active Directory's path.

This file includes lines like this:

172.16.205.5 domain\administrator 1482857637 Tue Dec 27 19:53:57 2016

172.16.200.237 domain\admin 1482857408 Tue Dec 27 19:50:08 2016

172.16.200.254 domain\cppm 1482857802 Tue Dec 27 19:56:42 2016

172.16.200.200 domain\admin 1482857830 Tue Dec 27 19:57:10 2016

I have to replace third column (1482857637) with givenName of that user. And this givenName data comes from a powershell command output like this.

C:\Users\Administrator> Get -ADuser -Identity 1482857637
GivenName: nthere
SamAccountName: 1482857637

Python script will work on Active Directory and powershell command as well.

After all of these steps done, I will send these informations to a firewall with xml api.

Question 1) ADUserIPmap.txt is a log file and lines will increase constantly. I don't want to read all file again and again. What is the correct method for this case?

2) Are there any simple way to get GivenName field from Active Directory

Thanks

Answer 1

Q1) After reading the file the first time, assign the current position to a variable. Then jump there before iterating.

with open('foo.txt') as f:
    z = f.seek(last_read)
    for line in f:
        print(line)
    last_read = f.tell()

If you need to persist last_read, use pickle

import pickle
# retrieve before processing
with open('last_read.pkl') as f:
    last_read = pickle.load(f)

#process
with open('foo.txt') as f:
    z = f.seek(last_read)
    for line in f:
        print(line)
    last_read = f.tell()


# save after processing
with open('last_read.pkl', 'wb') as f:
    pickle.dump(last_read, f)

If you want to persist multiple things, put them in a dictionary and pickle the dictionary.

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Q2) Looks like there are a few active directory libraries in PyPi