Quickstart

Eager to get started? This page gives a good introduction in how to get started with Dyndnsc. This assumes you already have Dyndnsc installed. If you do not, head over to the Installation section.

First, make sure that:

Let’s get started with some simple examples.

Command line usage

Dyndnsc exposes all options through the command line interface, however, we do recommend using a configuration file. Here is an example to update an IPv4 record on nsupdate.info with web based IP autodetection:

$ dyndnsc --updater-dyndns2 \
          --updater-dyndns2-hostname  test.nsupdate.info \
          --updater-dyndns2-userid    test.nsupdate.info \
          --updater-dyndns2-password  XXXXXXXX \
          --updater-dyndns2-url       https://nsupdate.info/nic/update \
          --detector-webcheck4 \
          --detector-webcheck4-url    https://ipv4.nsupdate.info/myip \
          --detector-webcheck4-parser plain

Updating an IPv6 address when using Miredo:

$ dyndnsc --updater-dyndns2 \
          --updater-dyndns2-hostname test.nsupdate.info \
          --updater-dyndns2-userid   test.nsupdate.info \
          --updater-dyndns2-password XXXXXXXX \
          --detector-teredo

Updating an IPv6 record on nsupdate.info with interface based IP detection:

$ dyndnsc --updater-dyndns2 \
          --updater-dyndns2-hostname test.nsupdate.info \
          --updater-dyndns2-userid   test.nsupdate.info \
          --updater-dyndns2-password XXXXXXXX \
          --detector-socket \
          --detector-socket-family   INET6

Update protocols

Dyndnsc supports several different methods for updating dynamic DNS services:

A lot of services on the internet offer some form of compatibility, so check against this list. Some of these external services are pre-configured for Dyndnsc as a preset, see the section on presets.

Each supported update protocol can be parametrized on the dyndnsc command line using long options starting with ‘–updater-’ followed by the name of the protocol:

$ dyndnsc --updater-afraid
$ dyndnsc --updater-dnsimple
$ dyndnsc --updater-duckdns
$ dyndnsc --updater-dyndns2

Each of these update protocols supports specific parameters, which might differ from each other. Each of these additional parameters can specified on the command line by appending them to the long option described above.

Example to specify token for updater duckdns:

$ dyndnsc --updater-duckdns-token 847c0ffb-39bd-326f-b971-bfb3d4e36d7b

Detecting the IP

Dyndnsc ships a couple of “detectors” which are capable of finding an IP address through different means.

Detectors may need additional parameters to work properly. Additional parameters can be specified on the command line similarly to the update protocols.

$ dyndnsc --detector-iface \
          --detector-iface-iface  en0 \
          --detector-iface-family INET

$ dyndnsc --detector-webcheck4 \
          --detector-webcheck4-url    http://ipv4.nsupdate.info/myip \
          --detector-webcheck4-parser plain

Some detectors require additional python dependencies:

  • iface, teredo detectors require netifaces to be installed

Presets

Dyndnsc comes with a list of pre-configured presets. To see all configured presets, you can run

$ dyndnsc --list-presets

Presets are used to shorten the amount of configuration needed by providing preconfigured parameters. For convenience, Dyndnsc ships some built-in presets but this list can be extended by yourself by adding them to the configuration file. Each preset has a section in the ini file called ‘[preset:NAME]’. See the section on the configuration file to see how to use presets.

Note: Presets can currently only be used in a configuration file. There is currently no support to select a preset from the command line.

Configuration file

Create a config file test.cfg with this content (no spaces at the left!):

[dyndnsc]
configs = test_ipv4, test_ipv6

[test_ipv4]
use_preset = nsupdate.info:ipv4
updater-hostname = test.nsupdate.info
updater-userid = test.nsupdate.info
updater-password = xxxxxxxx

[test_ipv6]
use_preset = nsupdate.info:ipv6
updater-hostname = test.nsupdate.info
updater-userid = test.nsupdate.info
updater-password = xxxxxxxx

Now invoke dyndnsc and give this file as configuration:

$ dyndnsc --config test.cfg

Custom services

If you are using a dyndns2 compatible service and need to specify the update URL explicitly, you can add the argument –updater-dyndns2-url:

$ dyndnsc --updater-dyndns2 \
          --updater-dyndns2-hostname=test.dyndns.com \
          --updater-dyndns2-userid=bob \
          --updater-dyndns2-password=fub4r \
          --updater-dyndns2-url=https://dyndns.example.com/nic/update

Plugins

Dyndnsc supports plugins which can be notified when a dynamic DNS entry was changed. Currently, only two plugins exist:

The list of plugins that are installed and available in your environment will be listed in the command line help. Each plugin command line option starts with ‘–with-‘.