Solution: Apache log using split

from collections import defaultdict
import sys

filename = 'apache_access.log'
if len(sys.argv) > 1:
    filename = sys.argv[1]

count = defaultdict(int)

with open(filename) as fh:
    for line in fh:
        ip, rest = line.split(' ', 1)
        #ip = line.split(' ', 1)[0]
        count[ip] += 1

for ip in count:
    print("{:16} {:>3}".format(ip, count[ip]))