Recipe13.15.Implementing the Dynamic IP Protocol

Recipe 13.15. Implementing the Dynamic IP Protocol

Credit: Nicola Paolucci, Mark Rowe, Andrew Notspecified

Problem

You use a Dynamic DNS Service which accepts the GnuDIP protocol (like yi.org), and need a command-line script to update your IP which is recorded with that service.

Solution

The Twisted framework has plenty of power for all kinds of network tasks, so we can use it to write a script to implement GnuDIP:

import md5, sys from twisted.internet import protocol, reactor from twisted.protocols import basic from twisted.python import usage def hashPassword(password, salt):     ''' compute and return MD5 hash for given password and `salt'. '''     p1 = md5.md5(password).hexdigest( ) + '.' + salt.strip( )     return md5.md5(p1).hexdigest( ) class DIPProtocol(basic.LineReceiver):     """ Implementation of GnuDIP protocol(TCP) as described at:     http://gnudip2.sourceforge.net/gnudip-www/latest/gnudip/html/protocol.html     """     delimiter = '\n'     def connectionMade(self):         ''' at connection, we start in state "expecting salt". '''         basic.LineReceiver.connectionMade(self)         self.expectingSalt = True     def lineReceived(self, line):         ''' we received a full line, either "salt" or normal response '''         if self.expectingSalt:             self.saltReceived(line)             self.expectingSalt = False         else:             self.responseReceived(line)     def saltReceived(self, salt):         """ Override this 'abstract method' """         raise NotImplementedError     def responseReceived(self, response):         """ Override this 'abstract method' """         raise NotImplementedError class DIPUpdater(DIPProtocol):     """ A simple class to update an IP, then disconnect. """     def saltReceived(self, salt):         ''' having received `salt', login to the DIP server '''         password = self.factory.getPassword( )         username = self.factory.getUsername( )         domain = self.factory.getDomain( )         msg = '%s:%s:%s:2' % (username, hashPassword(password, salt), domain)         self.sendLine(msg)     def responseReceived(self, response):         ''' response received: show errors if any, then disconnect. '''         code = response.split(':', 1)[0]         if code == '0':             pass  # OK         elif code == '1':             print 'Authentication failed'         else:             print 'Unexpected response from server:', repr(response)         self.transport.loseConnection( ) class DIPClientFactory(protocol.ClientFactory):      """ Factory used to instantiate DIP protocol instances with          correct username, password and domain.      """      protocol = DIPUpdater      # simply collect data for login and provide accessors to them      def _ _init_ _(self, username, password, domain):          self.u = username          self.p = password          self.d = domain      def getUsername(self):          return self.u      def getPassword(self):          return self.p      def getDomain(self):          return self.d      def clientConnectionLost(self, connector, reason):          ''' terminate script when we have disconnected '''          reactor.stop( )      def clientConnectionFailed(self, connector, reason):          ''' show error message in case of network problems '''          print 'Connection failed. Reason:', reason class Options(usage.Options):      ''' parse options from commandline or config script '''      optParameters = [['server', 's', 'gnudip2.yi.org', 'DIP Server'],                       ['port', 'p', 3495, 'DIP Server  port'],                       ['username', 'u', 'durdn', 'Username'],                       ['password', 'w', None, 'Password'],                       ['domain', 'd', 'durdn.yi.org', 'Domain']] if _ _name_ _ == '_ _main_ _':      # running as main script: first, get all the needed options      config = Options( )      try:          config.parseOptions( )      except usage.UsageError, errortext:          print '%s: %s' % (sys.argv[0], errortext)          print '%s: Try --help for usage details.' % (sys.argv[0])          sys.exit(1)      server = config['server']      port = int(config['port'])      password = config['password']      if not password:          print 'Password not entered. Try --help for usage details.'          sys.exit(1)      # and now, start operations (via Twisted's ``reactor'')      reactor.connectTCP(server, port,             DIPClientFactory(config['username'], password, config['domain']))      reactor.run( )

Discussion

I wanted to use a Dynamic DNS Service called yi.org, but I did not like the option of installing the suggested small client application to update my IP address on my OpenBSD box. So I resorted to writing the script shown in this recipe. I put it into my crontab to keep my domain always up-to-date with my dynamic IP address at home.

This little script is now at version 0.4, and its development history is quite instructive. I thought that even the first version. 0.1, which I got working in a few minutes, effectively demonstrated the power of the Twisted framework in developing network applications, so I posted that version on the ActiveState cookbook site. Lo and beholdMark first, then Andrew, showered me with helpful suggestions, and I repeatedly updated the script in response to their advice. So it now demonstrates even better, not just the power of Twisted, but more generally the power of collaborative development in an open-source or free-software community.

To give just one example: originally, I had overridden buildProtocol and passed the factory object to the protocol object explicitly. The factory object, in the Twisted framework architecture, is where shared state is kept (in this case, the username, password, and domain), so I had to ensure the protocol knew about the factoryI thought. It turns out that, exactly because just about every protocol needs to know about its factory object, Twisted takes care of it in its own default implementation of buildProtocol, making the factory object available as the factory attribute of every protocol object. So, my code, which duplicated Twisted's built-in functionality in this regard, was simply ripped out, and the recipe's code is simpler and better as a result.

Too often, software is presented as a finished and polished artifact, as if it sprang pristine and perfect like Athena from Zeus' forehead. This gives entirely the wrong impression to budding software developers, making them feel inadequate because their code isn't born perfect and fully developed. So, as a counterweight, I thought it important to present one little story about how software actually grows and develops!

One last detail: it's tempting to place methods updateIP and removeIP in the DIPProtocol class, to ease the writing of subclasses such as DIPUpdater. However, in my view, that would be an over-generalization, overkill for such a simple, lightweight recipe as Python and Twisted make this one. In practice we won't need all that many dynamic IP protocol subclasses, and if it turns out that we're wrong and we do, in fact, need them, hey, refactoring is clearly not a hard task with such a fluid, dynamic language and powerful frameworks to draw on. So, respect the prime directive: "do the simplest thing that can possibly work."

In a sense, the code in this recipe could be said to violate the prime directive, because it uses an elegant object-oriented architecture with an abstract base class, a concrete subclass to specialize it, and, in the factory class, accessor methods rather than simple attribute access for the login data (i.e., user, password, domain). All of these niceties are lifesavers in big programs, but they admittedly could be foregone for a program of only 120 lines (which would shrink a little further if it didn't use all these niceties). However, adopting a uniform style of program architecture, even for small programs, eases the refactoring task in those not-so-rare cases where a small program grows into a big one. So, I have deliberately developed the habit of always coding in such an "elegant OO way", and once the habit is acquired, I find that it enhances, rather than reduces, my productivity.

Recipe13.15.Implementing the Dynamic IP Protocol