ZoneEdit DDClient Updater 🔧

⚠️ Disclaimer: Not affiliated with ZoneEdit. Created as a replacement for `ddclient` on **RHEL 10** and other RPM-based distributions. Use at your own risk.

Table of contents

• 💡 Description

• ⬇️ Downloads

• 📦 Install via RPM

• ⚡ Quick start

• 📝 Notes

• 🐙 Install from Git

Description 🔗 description

ZoneEdit DDClient Updater is a lightweight Python service that keeps A records hosted on ZoneEdit in sync with your current public IPv4. It can run once for an immediate update or run as a long-lived systemd-managed daemon to periodically verify and update your IP. The service supports reading the IP from a local network interface or from an external check service, per-host state files to avoid unnecessary updates, a dry-run mode, and simple backoff when ZoneEdit signals rate limits.

Downloads 🔗 downloads

Pre-built RPMs and source archives are available in the dist/ directory of this repository:

• dist/zoneedit-ddclient-rpms.zip
• dist/noarch/zoneedit-ddclient-1.0-1.noarch.rpm

Install via RPM 🔗 installation

A pre-built RPM is included in the dist/ directory. Install it with:

sudo dnf install ./dist/noarch/zoneedit-ddclient-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
# or with rpm:
sudo rpm -Uvh dist/noarch/zoneedit-ddclient-1.0-1.noarch.rpm

The package installs the executable to /usr/bin/zoneedit_ddclient, the example config to /etc/zoneedit_ddclient.ini.example, and a systemd unit zoneedit-ddclient.service.

Quick start 🔗 quickstart

1. Copy the example config to /etc/zoneedit_ddclient.ini and edit it (use the [zoneedit] section):

   sudo cp /etc/zoneedit_ddclient.ini.example /etc/zoneedit_ddclient.ini
   sudo nano /etc/zoneedit_ddclient.ini

2. Configure the essential values in /etc/zoneedit_ddclient.ini:

   • hostnames (comma-separated FQDNs to update)
   • username (ZoneEdit account email)
   • password (ZoneEdit account password)
   • Optionally set interface to use a local interface IP instead of querying an external service, or set check_ip_service/use=web.

3. Create the state directory and set ownership if running as a non-root user:

   sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/zoneedit_ddclient
   sudo chown youruser:youruser /var/lib/zoneedit_ddclient

4. Start and enable the systemd service:

   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   sudo systemctl enable --now zoneedit-ddclient.service

   Alternatively, test a one-shot run before enabling the service:
   ```bash
   sudo /usr/bin/zoneedit_ddclient --config /etc/zoneedit_ddclient.ini --once

2. (Optional) Create the state directory and set ownership if running as non-root:
   ```bash
   sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/zoneedit_ddclient
   sudo chown youruser:youruser /var/lib/zoneedit_ddclient

3. Run once to test:

   python3 zoneedit_ddclient.py --config /etc/zoneedit_ddclient.ini --once
   # or use a specific interface (overrides config):
   python3 zoneedit_ddclient.py --config /etc/zoneedit_ddclient.ini --interface eth0 --once

4. Install systemd service (optional):

   sudo cp zoneedit-ddclient.service /etc/systemd/system/
   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   sudo systemctl enable --now zoneedit-ddclient.service

Notes 🔗 notes

• The script supports --dry-run to preview the update call without sending credentials.
• ZoneEdit enforces a minimum interval between updates (commonly 600 seconds). Set interval in your config to at least 600 to avoid rate-limit errors like Minimum 600 seconds between requests.
• The daemon supports exponential backoff when ZoneEdit signals rate limits; this is on by default. Use --no-backoff to disable or set backoff_max in the config to limit the maximum backoff (seconds).
• You can specify a local network interface to use its IPv4 address instead of querying an external service: set interface = eth0 in the config or pass --interface eth0.
• If requests is not installed, the script falls back to urllib.
• Keep your credentials secure and consider using an API token if available.

Install from Git (build or run in-place) 🔗 git

If you prefer to install and configure from a Git clone:

1. Clone the repository and change into it:

   git clone <repo-url>
   cd ZoneEdit-ddclient

2a. Quick test without installing (run directly):

python3 zoneedit_ddclient.py --config zoneedit_ddclient.ini.example --once

2b. To build and install an RPM locally (recommended for system integration):

make rpm
sudo dnf install ./dist/noarch/zoneedit-ddclient-1.0-1.noarch.rpm

3. After installing or running, copy and edit /etc/zoneedit_ddclient.ini as described above, create the state_dir if needed, and enable/start the service with systemd.