Namecheap DDNS

A command line interface (CLI) used to update the A + Dynamic DNS records for Namecheap.

Installation

Install using [cargo]:

shell cargo install namecheap-ddns

Pre-compiled Binaries

An alternative method is to download and run the pre-compiled binaries:

https://github.com/nickjer/namecheap-ddns/releases

Usage

Check the help (--help) for details on using this tool:

```shell namecheap-ddns 0.1.0 Jeremy Nicklas jeremywnicklas@gmail.com Updates the A + Dynamic DNS records for Namecheap

USAGE: namecheap-ddns [OPTIONS] --domain --subdomain ...

FLAGS: -h, --help Prints help information -V, --version Prints version information

OPTIONS: -d, --domain The domain with subdomains [env: NAMECHEAPDDNSDOMAIN=] -i, --ip The ip address to set on the subdomains (if blank the ip used to make this request will be used) [env: NAMECHEAPDDNSIP=] -s, --subdomain ... The subdomain to update [env: NAMECHEAPDDNSSUBDOMAIN=] ```

You will need to specify Namecheap's Dynamic DNS Password provided to you in their Advanced DNS control panel as the environment variable NAMECHEAP_DDNS_TOKEN.

Tip: This is not your Namecheap login password.

Examples

I want to update the host host1.example.com with my current public facing ip address:

console $ NAMECHEAP_DDNS_TOKEN=... namecheap-ddns -d example.com -s host1 host1.example.com IP address updated to: 123.123.123.123

I want to update multiple subdomains (host1, host2, and host3) with a given ip address:

```console $ NAMECHEAPDDNSTOKEN=... namecheap-ddns \

-d example.com \
-s host1 -s host2 -s host3
-i 123.123.123.123

host1.example.com IP address updated to: 123.123.123.123 host2.example.com IP address updated to: 123.123.123.123 host3.example.com IP address updated to: 123.123.123.123 ```

I want to use an environment variable file:

console $ cat .env export NAMECHEAP_DDNS_TOKEN=... export NAMECHEAP_DDNS_DOMAIN=example.com export NAMECHEAP_DDNS_SUBDOMAIN=host1 export NAMECHEAP_DDNS_IP=321.321.321.321 $ source .env $ namecheap-ddns host1.example.com IP address updated to: 321.321.321.321

Linux - systemd

If you want to set this up as a service you will need to create a service file and corresponding timer.

1. Create the service itself that updates your subdomains:

   ```desktop

   /etc/systemd/system/ddns-update.service

   [Unit] Description=Update DDNS records for Namecheap After=network-online.target

   [Service] Type=simple Environment=NAMECHEAPDDNSTOKEN= Environment=NAMECHEAPDDNSDOMAIN= Environment=NAMECHEAPDDNSSUBDOMAIN= ExecStart=/path/to/namecheap-ddns User=

   [Install] WantedBy=default.target ```

   Be sure to fill in the correct path to your binary as well as the environment variables.

2. Note that the super secret token is in this file, so we should set restrictive permissions:

   console $ sudo chmod 600 /etc/systemd/system/ddns-update.service

3. Create the timer that runs this service:

   ```desktop

   /etc/systemd/system/ddns-update.timer

   [Unit] Description=Run DDNS update every 15 minutes Requires=ddns-update.service

   [Timer] Unit=ddns-update.service OnUnitInactiveSec=15m AccuracySec=1s

   [Install] WantedBy=timers.target ```

4. Now we reload the daemon with the new services and start them:

   console $ sudo systemctl daemon-reload $ sudo systemctl start ddns-update.service ddns-update.timer

You can view the logs from the service with the following command:

console $ sudo journalctl -u ddns-update.service