How do I set up No-IP as a proper service?

There is an example service shell script in the download, but it seems limited and relies on killproc which doesn't exist by default on Ubuntu 16 LTS.

Solution 1:

Ubuntu 16 LTS uses systemd as the init system. This assumes you have already downloaded & installed the noip2 update client.

1. Create the file /etc/systemd/system/noip2.service as follows:

   [Unit]
   Description=No-Ip Dynamic DNS Update Service
   After=network.target
   
   [Service]
   Type=forking
   ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/noip2
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target
   

2. Reload the init daemon:

   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   

3. Enable the service:

   sudo systemctl enable noip2
   

4. Start the service:

   sudo systemctl start noip2
   

Derived from this readme

Solution 2:

I used the sysvinit guide from Jonas Friedmann.

1. Download and untar the No-IP DUC:
   wget https://www.noip.com/client/linux/noip-duc-linux.tar.gz
tar -xf noip-duc-linux.tar.gz --exclude='._*' (excludes Mac dotfiles)
2. Make and install it:
   cd noip-x.y (where x.y is version)
   make (errors here may mean you're missing compilation packages)
   sudo make install

3. Create the file /etc/init.d/noip with these contents:

   #!/bin/sh
   
   ### BEGIN INIT INFO
   # Provides:          noip
   # Required-Start:    $local_fs $network $syslog
   # Required-Stop:     $local_fs $network $syslog
   # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
   # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
   # Short-Description: no-ip DUC
   # Description:       Update DNS for dynamic IP on noip.com
   ### END INIT INFO
   
   NAME="noip"
   PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin"
   APPDIR="/"
   APPBIN="/usr/local/bin/noip2"
   PIDFILE="/var/run/${NAME}-customservice.pid"
   
   # Include functions 
   set -e
   . /lib/lsb/init-functions
   
   start() {
       printf "Starting '$NAME'... "
       start-stop-daemon --start --background --make-pidfile --pidfile "$PIDFILE" --chdir "$APPDIR" --exec "$APPBIN" || true
       printf "done\n"
   }
   
   #We need this function to ensure the whole process tree will be killed
   killtree() {
       local _pid=$1
       local _sig=${2-TERM}
       for _child in $(ps -o pid --no-headers --ppid ${_pid}); do
           killtree ${_child} ${_sig}
       done
       kill -${_sig} ${_pid}
   }
   
   stop() {
       printf "Stopping '$NAME'... "
       [ -z `cat "$PIDFILE" 2>/dev/null` ] || \
           while test -d /proc/$(cat "$PIDFILE"); do
               killtree $(cat "$PIDFILE") 15
               sleep 0.5
           done 
       [ -z `cat "$PIDFILE" 2>/dev/null` ] || rm "$PIDFILE"
       printf "done\n"
   }
   
   status() {
       "$APPBIN" -S
   }
   
   configure() {
       "$APPBIN" -C
   }
   
   case "$1" in
       start)
           start
           ;;
       stop)
           stop
           ;;
       restart)
           stop
           start
           ;;
       status)
           status
           ;;
       configure)
           configure
           ;;
       *)
           echo "Usage: $NAME {start|stop|restart|status|configure}" >&2
           exit 1
           ;;
   esac
   
   exit 0
   

   (I used sudo vim /etc/init.d/noip.)

4. Make it executable:
   sudo chmod a+x /etc/init.d/noip
5. Enable it:
   sudo update-rc.d noip defaults
6. Configure it:
   sudo service noip configure
7. Start it:
   sudo service noip start
8. Check it:
   sudo service noip status

Feedback is welcome.