rddclient - Rust Dynamic DNS Client

A fast, lightweight Dynamic DNS updater written in Rust that supports multiple DNS providers.

Supported Providers

✅ 1984.is - DynDNS2-compatible protocol
✅ Afraid.org - Token-based update API (v2)
✅ Cloudflare - Full API support with zone management
✅ ChangeIP - Legacy JSON protocol with basic auth
✅ ClouDNS - Simple dynurl-based updates
✅ DDNS.FM - DDNS service with REST API
✅ DDNSS - Simple token-based GET protocol
✅ deSEC - German DNS with token auth (DynDNS2-compatible)
✅ DigitalOcean - REST API with token authentication
✅ Dinahosting - REST API with basic auth
✅ Directnic - Pre-configured URL updates
✅ DNS Made Easy - Dynamic DNS endpoint
✅ DNSExit2 - JSON API v2 with API key
✅ DNSPod - Chinese DNS with token-based API
✅ Domeneshop - REST API with basic auth
✅ DonDominio - JSON API with key auth
✅ DSLReports - DSLReports legacy protocol
✅ DuckDNS - Simple token-based updates
✅ DynDNS v1 - Legacy DynDNS protocol (pre-DynDNS2)
✅ DynDNS2 - Compatible with DynDNS, DNSdynamic, and other DynDNS2-compatible services
✅ Dynu - DynDNS2-compatible protocol
✅ EasyDNS - REST API with basic auth (10min update interval)
✅ Email Only - Send notifications via email instead of updating DNS (requires system sendmail)
✅ Enom - Dynamic DNS API
✅ Freedns (afraid.org) - Hash-based update protocol
✅ Freemyip - Simple token-based updates
✅ Gandi - REST API with API key
✅ GoDaddy - REST API with key/secret
✅ Google Domains - DynDNS2-compatible protocol
✅ Hetzner - REST API with API token
✅ Hurricane Electric (HE.net) - Simple update protocol
✅ Infomaniak - DynDNS2-compatible protocol
✅ INWX - DynDNS2-compatible protocol
✅ Key-Systems (RRPproxy) - Token-based updates
✅ Linode - Linode API v4 with token auth
✅ Loopia - DynDNS2-compatible protocol
✅ LuaDNS - REST API with email/token auth
✅ Mythic Beasts - Modern dual-endpoint API
✅ Namecheap - Native Dynamic DNS support
✅ NFSN (NearlyFreeSpeech.NET) - Basic auth updates
✅ Njalla - Simple API with password auth
✅ No-IP - DynDNS2-compatible with No-IP specifics
✅ nsupdate - RFC 2136 Dynamic DNS Update protocol (requires DNS library)
✅ OVH - REST API (simplified, requires proper signing for production)
✅ Porkbun - REST API with key/secret
✅ Regfish - DynDNS2-compatible protocol
✅ Selfhost.de - German provider with DynDNS2 protocol
✅ Sitelutions - DynDNS2-compatible protocol
✅ Woima.fi - Finnish DNS with DynDNS2 protocol
✅ Yandex - Yandex PDD API
✅ Zoneedit - DynDNS2-compatible protocol
✅ ZoneEdit v1 - ZoneEdit legacy protocol

DynDNS2-Compatible Providers

The dyndns2 provider also works with many other services that support the DynDNS2 protocol, including but not limited to: DNSdynamic, DuckDNS (alternative), many router DDNS services, and custom DDNS implementations.

Features

🚀 Blazingly fast - Compiled Rust vs interpreted Perl
📦 Super tiny - Single < 1MB self-contained binary vs ddclient's ~64MB+ (Perl runtime + core libraries + modules)
🎯 Drop-in replacement - Compatible with ddclient config format and workflows
🌍 Full IPv6 support - All providers support both A and AAAA records
📝 Flexible configuration - ddclient-compatible config files or command-line arguments
🔄 Smart IP detection - Web services, network interfaces, custom commands, or manual IP
💾 State management - Tracks IP changes to minimize unnecessary DNS updates
⚙️ Easily extensible - Clean architecture for adding new providers

Installation

From Source

cargo build --release
sudo cp target/release/rddclient /usr/local/bin/

System Integration

See the examples/ directory for:

Systemd service and timer units
Cron job examples
Network hook scripts (DHCP, NetworkManager, PPP)
Provider-specific configurations

Quick Start

Simple Example

# Cloudflare with API token
rddclient --protocol cloudflare \
  --zone example.com \
  --login token \
  --password YOUR_API_TOKEN \
  --host ddns.example.com

# Or use a config file (recommended)
rddclient --file /etc/rddclient/rddclient.conf

Configuration File Example

# /etc/rddclient/rddclient.conf
protocol = cloudflare
zone = example.com
login = token
password = your_api_token_here
host = ddns.example.com

For more examples, see:

examples/cloudflare.conf - Cloudflare setup
examples/duckdns.conf - DuckDNS setup
examples/noip.conf - No-IP setup
examples/namecheap.conf - Namecheap setup
examples/rddclient.conf.example - Multi-provider template

Advanced IP Detection

# Use specific network interface
rddclient --file myconfig.conf --use-method if --if-name eth0

# Use custom command (always use HTTPS for security)
rddclient --file myconfig.conf --use-method cmd --cmd 'curl -s https://ifconfig.me'

# Use custom web service
rddclient --file myconfig.conf --use-method web --web https://api64.ipify.org

# Manual IP specification
rddclient --file myconfig.conf --ip 203.0.113.42

Rate Limiting

# Customize update intervals (default: min=30s, max=25d, error=5m)
rddclient --file myconfig.conf --min-interval 5m --max-interval 30d

# Prevent rapid retries after errors
rddclient --file myconfig.conf --min-error-interval 10m

# Force update regardless of intervals
rddclient --file myconfig.conf --force

Interval formats: 30s (seconds), 5m (minutes), 2h (hours), 25d (days)

Documentation

docs/parity.md - Feature parity with ddclient
docs/testing.md - Testing strategy and coverage
examples/README.md - Deployment examples and integration

Provider-Specific Notes

Cloudflare

Requires Zone ID (found in domain Overview)
API token needs DNS:Edit permissions

DigitalOcean

Personal Access Token required
DNS record must already exist

DuckDNS

Free service, no account needed for basic use
Token is per-account, works for all your domains
Hostname should be without .duckdns.org suffix

Freedns (afraid.org)

Uses unique update token per hostname
Token is different for each DNS record

GoDaddy

Requires API key/secret from developer.godaddy.com
Production keys require domain ownership verification

Hurricane Electric

Free DNS hosting
Update key is per-hostname (found in DNS management)

OVH

Current implementation is simplified
Full production use requires proper API request signing
Requires application key, secret, and consumer key

Porkbun

Requires API enabled in account settings
Both API key and secret key needed

Architecture

rddclient uses a modular architecture with provider-specific clients implementing a common DnsClient trait:

src/
├── main.rs              # Application entry point & orchestration
├── args.rs              # CLI argument parsing (Clap)
├── config.rs            # ddclient config file parser
├── ip.rs                # IP detection with fallback sources
└── clients/             # DNS provider implementations
    ├── mod.rs           # DnsClient trait & provider factory
    ├── cloudflare.rs    # Cloudflare API client
    ├── digitalocean.rs  # DigitalOcean API client
    ├── duckdns.rs       # DuckDNS API client
    ├── dyndns2.rs       # DynDNS2 protocol (40+ providers)
    └── ...              # 52 total providers

Adding New Providers

To add a new DNS provider, see docs/ProviderGuidelines.md for detailed instructions.

Quick overview:

Create src/clients/newprovider.rs implementing the DnsClient trait
Add module to src/clients/mod.rs
Add to create_client() factory function
Add example configuration to examples/
Add tests

Example template:

use crate::clients::DnsClient;
use std::error::Error;
use std::net::IpAddr;

pub struct NewProviderClient {
    api_key: String,
    // provider-specific fields
}

impl DnsClient for NewProviderClient {
    fn update_record(&self, hostname: &str, ip: IpAddr) -> Result<(), Box<dyn Error>> {
        // Make API call to update DNS record
        Ok(())
    }
}

Troubleshooting

IP Detection Issues

Automatic IP detection tries multiple sources with fallback. If all fail, specify manually with --ip.

Authentication Errors

Verify API credentials in configuration
Check token/key permissions
Look for trailing spaces in config values

DNS Update Failures

Some providers require pre-creating DNS records
Verify domain ownership in provider dashboard
Use --verbose for detailed request/response logs

For more help, see docs/troubleshooting.md.

License

GPLv3

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See docs/ProviderGuidelines.md for comprehensive guidelines on adding new providers.

Roadmap

See docs/parity.md for complete feature parity tracking with ddclient.

Completed:

✅ Full IPv6 support (all providers)
✅ --force flag for forced updates
✅ ddclient config file compatibility
✅ State management & IP change detection (v0.6.0)
✅ --cache file support for persistent state
✅ Advanced IP detection (v0.6.0): --use-method, --if-name, --cmd, --web
✅ Rate limiting (v0.6.0): --min-interval, --max-interval, --min-error-interval

In Progress:

Daemon mode with --daemon flag

Planned:

Email notifications
Proxy support

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 66 Commits
.github		.github
docs		docs
examples		examples
src		src
.gitignore		.gitignore
Cargo.lock		Cargo.lock
Cargo.toml		Cargo.toml
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md

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rddclient - Rust Dynamic DNS Client

Supported Providers

DynDNS2-Compatible Providers

Features

Installation

From Source

System Integration

Quick Start

Simple Example

Configuration File Example

Advanced IP Detection

Rate Limiting

Documentation

Provider-Specific Notes

Cloudflare

DigitalOcean

DuckDNS

Freedns (afraid.org)

GoDaddy

Hurricane Electric

OVH

Porkbun

Architecture

Adding New Providers

Troubleshooting

IP Detection Issues

Authentication Errors

DNS Update Failures

License

Contributing

Roadmap

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