0. Contents of rxdyndns.zip 1.3:
0.1 RXDYNDNS.HTML this text
0.2 RXDYNDNS.CMD simple DynDNS update script for OS/2 REXX
0.3 WATCHPPP.CMD simple OS/2 ppp0 daemon using RXDYNDNS.CMD
0.4 WATCHPPP.ICO a nice icon for <WATCHPPP.CMD> PPP0.DAEMON
1. Prerequisites
1.1 RXSOCK.DLL REXX sockets library from IBM
1.2 ppp0.pid ?:\mptn\etc\ppp0.pid watched by WATCHPPP.CMD
ifconfig.exe dynamic IP determined by IFCONFIG PPP0
1.3 HOSTNAME your DynDNS host(s) , e.g. test.dnsalias.org
USERNAME your DynDNS loginid., e.g. test
PASSWORD your DynDNS password, e.g. test for test
2. Installation
2.1 Copy WATCHPPP.CMD and RXDYNDNS.CMD to a directory in your PATH.
Edit WATCHPPP.CMD to reflect your HOSTNAME, USERNAME, PASSWORD.
2.2 Optionally specify multiple comma separated hosts as HOSTNAME.
Optionally specify DynDNS parameters in VARIABLE, i.e. replace
the dummy 'system=dyndns' by one or more parameter=value pairs
separated by & or semicolon. You cannot use wildcard=YES or
wildcard=NO, RXDYNDNS automatically forces wildcard=NOCHG. Do
not use any myip=... or hostname=... (handled by RXDYNDNS.CMD).
2.3 Please note that system=custom and offline=YES are no free
services. RXDYNDNS does not support system=statdns.
2.4 Use 'WATCHPPP *' (once) to (re)create a WPS object PPP0.DAEMON.
Edit PPP0.DAEMON settings as needed, e.g. add the WATCHPPP.ICO
or modify argument 10 (the ppp0.pid check interval in seconds).
2.5 Create a shadow of PPP0.DAEMON in startup folder <WP_START>.
Start PPP0.DAEMON manually for the first time, or reboot :-).
Move object PPP0.DAEMON from the desktop to any other folder.
3. WATCHPPP.CMD
3.1 The shipped version of WATCHPP.CMD updates a DynDNS host with
call RXDYNDNS 'ppp0', 'test.dnsalias.org', 'test', 'test'
You can edit this script as needed, e.g. start other tasks as
soon as a new IP (= dialup internet connection) is detected.
3.2 WATCHPPP.CMD can be used as VIO program on the command line or
as PM program (started by CMD.EXE or PMREXX.EXE). At most one
instance of WATCHPPP.CMD can run for any given interface, the
default interface is IFCONFIG = 'ppp0'.
3.3 To start a new PPP0.DAEMON call e.g. WATCHPPP 10 for a poll
cycle of 10 seconds. The new PPP0.DAEMON automatically sends
a termination request to a running daemon. PPP0.DAEMON uses
a REXX queue 'PPP0.DAEMON' to read the output of IFCONFIG.EXE,
and terminates itself if anybody else writes into its queue.
Use WATCHPPP 0 to send a termination request to a PPP0.DAEMON
without starting a new instance - or simply abort it with ^C.
3.4 Specify a negative number like WATCHPPP -10 for a poll cycle
of 10 seconds and messages even for successful (good) updates.
Normally (positive number) only problems are displayed.
Please note that WATCHPPP waits for OKAY / CANCEL (in PM) or
ENTER / ESC (VIO) after each message. There is no unattended
error recovery. Don't run WATCHPPP in a DETACHed session, use
a minimized VIO or PM session.
3.5 WATCHPPP called without argument displays a short usage info
and its actual configuration, the defaults on my system are:
| usage: G:\BIN\watchppp.cmd [seconds|0|-|*]
| checks E:\MPTN\ETC\ppp0.pid cyclically with the given delay.
| If changed and IFCONFIG ppp0 shows a new IP, then host(list)
| test.dnsalias.org
| is updated with the configured parameters:
| G:\BIN\RXDYNDNS.CMD ppp0 host(list) test test system=dyndns
|
| Specify seconds < 0 to get a message even for GOOD updates,
| use "G:\BIN\watchppp.cmd 0" to kill a running PPP0.DAEMON,
| use "G:\BIN\watchppp.cmd -" for offline=YES
| use "G:\BIN\watchppp.cmd *" to create a PPP0.DAEMON object.
3.6 Again, to change the default configuration just edit HOSTNAME,
USERNAME, PASSWORD, and VARIABLE at the begin of WATCHPPP.CMD.
4. RXDYNDNS.CMD
4.1 RXDYNDNS can be used directly on the command line to update
a DynDNS host: RXDYNDNS interface hostname username password,
e.g. try RXDYNDNS ppp0 test.dyndns.org test test
4.2 Please edit the line COPYLEFT = ... in RXDYNDNS.CMD as soon
as you change anything else in this script, because DynDNS
can block erroneous or abusive update clients.
4.3 RXDYNDNS.CMD does not actually handle the DynDNS protocol,
it only displays or returns the result of an attempted
update. The caller has to evaluate the result messages as
specified in DynDNS return codes.
4.4 WATCHPPP.CMD simply displays any RXDYNDNS.CMD problem, so the
user is responsible for the proper reaction like waiting for
a certain period or correcting invalid WATCHPPP parameters.
4.5 RXDYNDNS.CMD called without argument shows a short usage info:
| usage: rxdyndns.cmd interface hosts login password [param]
| e.g.: rxdyndns.cmd ppp0 test.dnsalias.org test test mx=NOCHG
| e.g.: rxdyndns.cmd ppp0 test.dnsalias.org test test
| where multiple comma separated hosts are allowed.
| Separate parameters with "&" or ";" (not spaces),
| parameter wildcard=NOCHG enforced by rxdyndns.cmd.
4.6 If called as REXX FUNCTION / PROCEDURE by WATCHPPP (instead of
a COMMAND line call) RXDYNDNS only returns the update result
to its caller. Otherwise the result is also written on STDOUT,
normally the screen. In both cases update results are sent to
a local SysLog daemon (RfC 3164, UDP port 514) if available.
5. History
5.1 I've written RXDYNDNS 0.3 because DNSAlias-Net 2.0 had been
removed from the list of "other clients" for some time 2002.
It's now back again, see the list of other DynDNS clients.
5.2 New features in RXDYNDNS.CMD version 0.7:
You can specify multiple comma separated hosts, example line:
RXDYNDNS.CMD ppp0 test.dnsalias.org,test.dyndns.org test test
Updates are sent to http://members.dydns.org:8245/nic/update.
You can add certain DynDNS parameters as fifth argument, e.g.:
RXDYNDNS.CMD ppp0 test.dnsalias.org test test offline=YES
RXDYNDNS.CMD ppp0 test.dnsalias.org test test system=custom
RXDYNDNS.CMD ppp0 test.dnsalias.org test test mx=your.mx.test
Separate multiple additional parameters with '&' or semicolon
as in system=custom&offline=YES or system=custom;offline=YES
Internally commata, ampersands, semicolons, and even blanks
are accepted as separators, but in the resulting GET HTTP/1.0
query parameters are separated by ampersands and hostnames by
commata, resulting in query parameter hostname=host1,host2 etc.
Normally RXDYNDNS does not allow you to update a host, if its
IP is already set. Now the presence of parameter &offline=YES
bypasses this restriction. You MUST NOT specify &offline=NO,
this feature is reserved for manual tests. Only donators are
allowed to use &offline=YES, otherwise you'd get a "!donator".
The error message "nohost" normally indicates an unknown host.
In the case of parameter &system=custom or &system=statdns
"nohost" can also indicate a host not known in the specified
system.
5.3 Do not use parameters mx=what.ever.test and backmx=NO (or YES)
without the prior consent of postmaster@what.ever.test, and do
not specify your own single host as MX. With dynamic IPs it's
utter dubious to run a SMTP daemon. At certain times your host
name will be resolved to a dynamic IP of another online system,
e.g. if old (= cached) DNS records are used beyond expiration.
5.4 In one trivial case feel free to edit RXDYNDNS.CMD keeping its
original COPYLEFT: If you're behind a firewall blocking port
8245, simply replace 8245 by 80. A certain German ISP is known
to redirect the very first HTTP GET on port 80 to its own site.
Maybe add a dummy RXGETURL to WATCHPPP before calling RXDYNDNS
if you are forced to use this ISP and port 80.
5.5 Version 0.8 was a bug fix, for details see the RXSYSLOG demo.
Version 0.9 reports "IP already set" as "nochg IP already set".
WATCHPPP now supports retries after errors, because I often got
spurious "unknown host" errors caused by DNS delays. Use OKAY
(Enter) to continue in these cases. Please use CANCEL (Esc)
after real errors reported by DynDNS to kill WATCHPP. It is
still your job to interpret error messages, WATCHPPP recognizes
only "good" and "nochg".
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) can be used with system=custom.
Use the advanced interface to create a corresponding DNS TXT
record once, a powerful example is "v=spf1 a mx -all".
5.6 Version 1.0 supports the new (2005) mx=NOCHG and backmx=NOCHG
parameters. The latter is now the default, use backmx=OFF to
disable it.
Version 1.1 supports hosts in the noxadyndns.de or h3c.de
domains. See http://www.noxa.de/?noxadyndns-compat for
details (German text). Only a minimal subset of the DynDNS
protocol is supported, they offer their own SMTP-like telnet
user interface for complex tasks.
With noxa.de users can define TXT records for SPF policies.
Please note that RXDYNDNS doesn't support mixtures of hosts,
each call only updates hosts at one DNS provider.
Version 1.2 was another attempt to unify the RxSock.dll use,
minor bugs not affecting good updates fixed in version 1.3.
5.7 This is version 1.3 of RXDYNDNS.CMD, for future updates see
<URL:http://purl.net/xyzzy/src/rxdyndns.zip> (= ZIP archive),
<URL:http://purl.net/xyzzy/rxdyndns.htm> (= HTML manual),
<URL:http://purl.net/xyzzy/sources.htm> (other scripts).
Last update: 15 Jun 2007 15:00 by F.Ellermann