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

Question

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.

Answer 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

Answer 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.