Website-generated configuration results in 'Failed to start' error

[ghost]

On Arch linux using ddclient version 3.9.0-3, choosing the 'ddclient' tab upon setting host generates a /etc/ddclient.conf file which results in the following error when used as provided:
ddclient.service: Failed with result 'protocol' Can't open PID file /run/ddclient.pid

The service will start properly if the following 2 lines are added to this file:

pid=/run/ddclient.pid
daemon=300

[ThomasWaldmann]

That sounds a bit strange.

In the error message, it says it can't open file X, but if you configure exactly the same file X as pid file, that changes behaviour?

Can you try again with / without the first line and with / without the 2nd line to reduce it to the minimum needed to make it work?

[ghost]

When I comment this pid=/run/ddclient.pid but not daemon=300, it hangs upon doing sudo systemctl restart ddclient, as well as sudo systemctl stop ddclient then sudo systemctl start ddclient.
And when I comment the other way around it errors on sudo systemctl restart ddclient with:

● ddclient.service - Dynamic DNS Update Client
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/ddclient.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: protocol) since Mon 2019-05-13 18:33:46 EDT; 2min 39s ago
  Process: 702 ExecStart=/usr/bin/ddclient (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

May 13 18:33:46 M87 systemd[1]: Starting Dynamic DNS Update Client...
May 13 18:33:46 M87 systemd[1]: ddclient.service: Can't open PID file /run/ddclient.pid (yet?) after start: No such file or directory
May 13 18:33:46 M87 systemd[1]: ddclient.service: Failed with result 'protocol'.
May 13 18:33:46 M87 systemd[1]: Failed to start Dynamic DNS Update Client.

and

$ journalctl -xe
May 13 18:38:44 M87 kdeinit5[749]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:38:44 M87 kdeinit5[752]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:39:14 M87 kdeinit5[749]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:39:14 M87 kdeinit5[752]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:39:25 M87 kdeinit5[768]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:39:44 M87 kdeinit5[749]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:39:44 M87 kdeinit5[752]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:39:44 M87 kdeinit5[746]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:39:55 M87 kdeinit5[768]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:40:14 M87 kdeinit5[749]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:40:14 M87 kdeinit5[752]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:40:25 M87 kdeinit5[768]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:40:44 M87 kdeinit5[746]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:40:55 M87 kdeinit5[768]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:41:25 M87 kdeinit5[768]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:41:44 M87 kdeinit5[746]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:41:55 M87 kdeinit5[768]: kf5.kio.core: finished() called twice! Please fix the "kio_sftp" KIO slave
May 13 18:42:12 M87 sudo[775]:       db : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/db ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/systemctl restart ddclient
May 13 18:42:12 M87 sudo[775]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by db(uid=0)
May 13 18:42:12 M87 systemd[1]: Starting Dynamic DNS Update Client...
-- Subject: A start job for unit ddclient.service has begun execution
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- A start job for unit ddclient.service has begun execution.
-- 
-- The job identifier is 681.
May 13 18:42:13 M87 systemd[1]: ddclient.service: Can't open PID file /run/ddclient.pid (yet?) after start: No such file or directory
May 13 18:42:13 M87 systemd[1]: ddclient.service: Failed with result 'protocol'.
-- Subject: Unit failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- The unit ddclient.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'protocol'.
May 13 18:42:13 M87 systemd[1]: Failed to start Dynamic DNS Update Client.
-- Subject: A start job for unit ddclient.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- A start job for unit ddclient.service has finished with a failure.
-- 
-- The job identifier is 681 and the job result is failed.
May 13 18:42:13 M87 audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=ddclient comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=>
May 13 18:42:13 M87 kernel: audit: type=1130 audit(1557787333.386:29): pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=ddclient comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" >
May 13 18:42:13 M87 sudo[775]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
lines 1663-1707/1707 (END)

EDITED: Formatting & erroneous output for journalctl -xe

[ThomasWaldmann]

Hmm, strange. Can you check with the arch linux ddclient package maintainer?

I copy & pasted our generated ddclient conf a lot and it always worked for me yet (on debian / ubuntu usually).

So either this is something new in ddclient or an arch issue.

[ghost]

Hmm, strange. Can you check with the arch linux ddclient package maintainer?

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/62628

[yan12125]

It might not be an Arch Linux bug. As far as I understand ddclient.service is expected to be used with daemonized ddclient, so you need to add daemon= and pid= in ddclient.conf.