ddclient always tries to update even when there's been no change in IP

[GrantEdwards]

How do I get ddclient 3.10 to only update when the IP address changes?

It always tries to update, almost always get's a "nochg" response from api.dynu.org.

The cache file updates every time and seems to indicate that everything's OK:

## ddclient-3.10.0
## last updated at Sat Jun  3 08:34:49 2023 (1685799289)
atime=0,backupmx=0,custom=0,host=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.mywire.org,ip=aa.b..cc.dd,mtime=1685799193,mx=,script=/nic/update,static=0,status=good,status-ipv4=noconnect,status-ipv6=noconnect,warned-min-error-interval=1685799289,warned-min-interval=0,wildcard=0,wtime=30 grantstreet.mywire.org

But the next time it runs it will say that the last update failed, try to do an update, and receive a 'nochg' response again.

Is a 'nochg' response considered a failure?

[SuperSandro2000]

The cache is known to be broken but there is no capacity to fix it. There are other issues about this.

[fabian727]

so it seems here was the same problem?
https://askubuntu.com/questions/317662/ddclient-updates-every-time-and-logs-nochg-no-update-required

I have the same problem. (started with upgrading debian from 11.7 to 12)

Running "sudo rm /var/cache/ddclient/ddclient.cache" and service restart does fix it? What's the current workaround?

Edit: because of this problem, my provider blocked me and everything connected is offline. If this service is not running perfectly well (which it did the last years; thanks for your effort), I currently don't know what to do.

[SuperSandro2000]

so it seems here was the same problem?

that issue is way older. The cache on 3.10.0 is somewhat broken and I am currently do not have time allocated to fix that.

[fabian727]

2023-06-17T16:05:44.764359+02:00 surfer ddclient[1166711]: FAILED:   updating mydomain.de: unexpected status (14)
2023-06-17T16:05:44.768002+02:00 surfer ddclient[1166711]: WARNING:  updating : nochg: No update required; unnecessary attempts to change to the current address are considered abusive
2023-06-17T16:05:44.771118+02:00 surfer ddclient[1166711]: FAILED:   updating : unexpected status (0)
2023-06-17T16:05:44.774015+02:00 surfer ddclient[1166711]: FAILED:    was not updated because protocol <undefined> is not supported.

That's what I get every time ddclient is running. It seems to work though. My domain address is updated and can be reached. But my provider blocks me, as to many requests (nochg) are running. (I call ddclient all 5 minutes

My cache looks like:

`

ddclient-3.10.0

last updated at Sat Jun 17 16:10:44 2023 (1687011044)

atime=1687011044,backupmx=0,custom=0,host=mydomain1.de,mtime=0,mx=,script=/nic/update,static=0,status=14,status-ipv4=noconnect,status-ipv6=noconnect,warned-min-error-interval=0,warned-min-interval=0,wildcard=0,wtime=0 mydomain1.de
atime=0,backupmx=0,custom=0,host=mydomain2.de,ip=000.000.000.000,mtime=1687010442,mx=,script=/nic/update,static=0,status=good,status-ipv4=noconnect,status-ipv6=noconnect,warned-min-error-interval=0,warned-min-interval=0,wildcard=0,wtime=30 mydomain2.de
`

so it is updated, deleting it does not help. Only second domain has an (correct) ip address

[fade2gray]

Strange.

[drodriguez-dev]

TL;DR: In ddclient-3.11.1 I still had this problem using protocol=dyndns2. This is a patch which solved the issue for me:
ddclient.in.patch.

Hello,

I also had this problem that every time the daemon was executed, the request was made to change the URL in the DDNS. It seems that the program checks the previous IP from the cache using the ip variable instead of ipv4. On the other hand, it never writes the ip variable in the cache. This causes it to not validate the previous IP and forces the update in the DDNS on each run. After reviewing the code and a lot of trial an error, I've realized that creating the variable ip in the cache stops the update on each run. Then the solution (for me) was to store the current IP on the variable ip in the cache (only in sub nic_dyndns2_update).

Log (before)

WARNING:  updating xxx.yyy.zzz: nochg: No update required; unnecessary attempts to change to the current address are considered abusive

Log (after)

SUCCESS:  xxx.yyy.zzz: skipped: IP address was already set to 1.2.3.4.

Config

...
use=web, web=checkip.dynu.com/, web-skip='IP Address'
server=api.dynu.com
protocol=dyndns2
login=username
password='password'
xxx.yyy.zzz

Cache

atime=0,backupmx=0,custom=0,host=xxx.yyy.zzz,ip=1.2.3.4,ipv4=1.2.3.4,mtime=1700401014,mx=,script=/nic/update,static=0,status=good,status-ipv4=good,status-ipv6=noconnect,warned-min-error-interval=0,warned-min-interval=0,wildcard=0,wtime=30 xxx.yyy.zzz

Hope it helps.

(Not a perl programmer, this is not the best solution but I don't know how to find where is the root of the problem)

[protist]

Thanks @drodriguez-dev. I am also using protocol=dyndns2, and I can confirm that I get the same warnings every 5 minutes (which is how frequently the daemon rechecks).

WARNING:  updating foo.dynu.com: nochg: No update required; unnecessary attempts to change to the current address are considered abusive

Your patch prevents these warnings. FWIW there is nothing in my log after patching and restarting, i.e. I don't get the skipped line that you report. I'm not sure why.

[drodriguez-dev]

Glad it helped.

FWIW there is nothing in my log after patching and restarting, i.e. I don't get the skipped line that you report. I'm not sure why.

Yes, the skipped message is only shown when logs are configured when VERBOSE=1. However, you should see when the IP is changed, I think.

SUCCESS:  updating xxx.yyy.zzz: good: IPv4 address set to 1.2.3.4