Dynamic IP Address tracker

A simple script that can be leveraged to save a machine's public IP address to a GitHub repository for simple retrieval.

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Accessing the IP Address

You can view the latest public IP Address in a couple different ways. One is best for scripting and the other for simply browsing in the web.

Note: these URL's depend on your username. The URL will also be different if you have renamed the repository from its original dynamic-ip-github-tracker.

Plaintext

This is the recommended format if you would like to leverage this dynamic ip tracker in any scripts.

https://<token>@raw.githubusercontent.com/<username>/dynamic-ip-github-tracker/main/ip_address.txt

GitHub UI

https://github.com/<username>/dynamic-ip-github-tracker/blob/main/ip_address.txt 

Note: if the repository is private, this requires you to to be authenticated.

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Setup

1. Setup a GitHub Fine-Grained Personal Access Token

The Personal Access Token is needed to allow the script to create and push commits to the repository.

See the official documentation for Creating a fine-grained personal access token.

Following the least-privilege-principle, you're token should be setup in a manner similar to the following:

• Repository Access
  • Only select repositories
    • Your fork of the Dynamic IP Address tracker repository
• Permissions
  • Repository Permissions
    • Contents: Read and Write
    • Metadata: Read Only
  • Account Permissions
    • None

You'll need to use the token later, so save a copy.

2. Clone repository

Clone the repository (via HTTPS) onto the machine in which you need the IP address tracked.

$ git clone https://<username>:<token from step 1>@github.com/<username>/dynamic-ip-github-tracker.git

The clone method must be HTTPS since authentication will be completed through a personal access token.

3. Save the token

Save the generated token from step 1 into a file called token located within the cloned repository on the machine in which you need the IP address tracked. It's unlikely that this token will be needed again, but it's always a good idea to keep a copy.

4. Update the script path

Edit line 4 of app.sh to match the cloned repository location. This will ensure the script starts in the correct location when launched by another process.

5. Setup a recurring invocation of the script

Leverage a tool such as cron to setup a recurring invocation of the script.

A good rule of thumb is to run the script should hourly.
See an example crontab entry for running the task hourly below.

0 * * * * <path to cloned repository>/app.sh