asterisk - All-purpose telephony server.
asterisk
[-BcdfFghiImnpqRtTvVW] [-C file] [-e
memory] [-G group] [-L loadaverage]
[-M value] [-U user] [-s
socket-file]
asterisk -r
[-v] [-d] [-x command]
asterisk -R
[-v] [-d] [-x command]
asterisk is a full-featured telephony server which provides
Private Branch eXchange (PBX), Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Automated
Call Distribution (ACD), Voice over IP (VoIP) gatewaying, Conferencing, and
a plethora of other telephony applications to a broad range of telephony
devices including packet voice (SIP, IAX2, MGCP, Skinny, H.323, Unistim)
devices (both endpoints and proxies), as well as traditional TDM hardware
including T1, E1, ISDN PRI, GR-303, RBS, Loopstart, Groundstart, ISDN BRI
and many more.
At start, Asterisk reads the /etc/asterisk/asterisk.conf main
configuration file and locates the rest of the configuration files from the
configuration in that file. The -C option specifies an alternate main
configuration file. Virtually all aspects of the operation of asterisk's
configuration files can be found in the sample configuration files. The
format for those files is generally beyond the scope of this man page.
When running with -c, -r or -R options,
Asterisk supplies a powerful command line, including command completion,
which may be used to monitors its status, perform a variety of
administrative actions and even explore the applications that are currently
loaded into the system.
Asterisk is a trademark of Digium, Inc.
Running Asterisk starts the asterisk daemon (optionally running it
in the foreground). However running it with -r or -R connects
to an existing Asterisk instance through a remote console.
- -B
- Force the background of the terminal to be black, in order for terminal
colors to show up properly. Equivalent to forceblackbackground =
yes in asterisk.conf. See also -n and -W.
- -C file
- Use file as master configuration file instead of the default,
/etc/asterisk/asterisk.conf
- -c
- Provide a control console on the calling terminal. The console is similar
to the remote console provided by -r. Specifying this option
implies -f and will cause asterisk to no longer fork or detach from
the controlling terminal. Equivalent to console = yes in
asterisk.conf.
- -d
- Enable extra debugging statements. This parameter may be used several
times, and each increases the debug level. Equivalent to debug =
num in asterisk.conf to explicitly set the initian debug
level to num. When given at startup, this option also implies
-f (no forking). However when connecting to an existing Asterisk
instance (-r or -R), it may only increase the debug
level.
- -e memory
- Limit the generation of new channels when the amount of free memory has
decreased to under memory megabytes. Equivalent to minmemfree =
memory in asterisk.conf.
- -f
- Do not fork or detach from controlling terminal. Overrides any preceding
specification of -F on the command line. Equivalent to nofork =
yes in asterisk.conf. See also -c.
- -F
- Always fork and detach from controlling terminal. Overrides any preceding
specification of -f on the command line. May also be used to
prevent -d and -v to imply no forking. Equivalent to
alwaysfork = yes in asterisk.conf.
- -g
- Remove resource limit on core size, thus forcing Asterisk to dump core in
the unlikely event of a segmentation fault or abort signal. NOTE:
in some cases this may be incompatible with the -U or -G
flags.
- -G group
- Run as group group instead of the calling group. NOTE: this
requires substantial work to be sure that Asterisk's environment has
permission to write the files required for its operation, including logs,
its comm socket, the asterisk database, etc.
- -h
- Provide brief summary of command line arguments and terminate.
- -i
- Prompt user to intialize any encrypted private keys for IAX2 secure
authentication during startup.
- -I
- Enable internal timing if DAHDI timing is available. The default behaviour
is that outbound packets are phase locked to inbound packets. Enabling
this switch causes them to be locked to the internal DAHDI timer
instead.
- -L loadaverage
- Limits the maximum load average before rejecting new calls. This can be
useful to prevent a system from being brought down by terminating too many
simultaneous calls.
- -m
- Temporarily mutes output to the console and logs. To return to normal, use
logger mute.
- -M value
- Limits the maximum number of calls to the specified value. This can be
useful to prevent a system from being brought down by terminating too many
simultaneous calls.
- -n
- Disable ANSI colors even on terminals capable of displaying them.
- -p
- If supported by the operating system (and executing as root), attempt to
run with realtime priority for increased performance and responsiveness
within the Asterisk process, at the expense of other programs running on
the same machine.
Note: astcanary will run concurrently with
asterisk. If astcanary stops running or is killed,
asterisk will slow down to normal process priority, to avoid
locking up the machine.
- -q
- Reduce default console output when running in conjunction with console
mode (-c).
- -r
- Instead of running a new Asterisk process, attempt to connect to a running
Asterisk process and provide a console interface for controlling it.
- -R
- Much like -r. Instead of running a new Asterisk process, attempt to
connect to a running Asterisk process and provide a console interface for
controlling it. Additionally, if connection to the Asterisk process is
lost, attempt to reconnect for as long as 30 seconds.
- -s socket file name
- In combination with -r, connect directly to a specified Asterisk
server socket.
- -t
- When recording files, write them first into a temporary holding directory,
then move them into the final location when done.
- -T
- Add timestamp to all non-command related output going to the console when
running with verbose and/or logging to the console.
- -U user
- Run as user user instead of the calling user. NOTE: this
requires substantial work to be sure that Asterisk's environment has
permission to write the files required for its operation, including logs,
its comm socket, the asterisk database, etc.
- -v
- Increase the level of verboseness on the console. The more times -v
is specified, the more verbose the output is. Specifying this option
implies -f and will cause asterisk to no longer fork or detach from
the controlling terminal. This option may also be used in conjunction with
-r and -R.
Note: This always sets the verbose level in the asterisk
process, even if it is running in the background. This will affect the
size of your log files.
- -V
- Display version information and exit immediately.
- -W
- Display colored terminal text as if the background were white or otherwise
light in color. Normally, terminal text is displayed as if the background
were black or otherwise dark in color.
- -x command
- Connect to a running Asterisk process and execute a command on a command
line, passing any output through to standard out and then terminating when
the command execution completes. Implies -r when -R is not
explicitly supplied.
- -X
- Enables executing of includes via #exec directive inside
asterisk.conf.
asterisk - Begin Asterisk as a daemon
asterisk -vvvgc - Run on controlling terminal
asterisk -rx "core show channels" - Display
channels on running server
Bug reports and feature requests may be filed at
https://issues.asterisk.org
https://www.asterisk.org - The Asterisk Home Page
http://www.asteriskdocs.org - The Asterisk Documentation
Project
https://wiki.asterisk.org - The Asterisk Wiki
https://www.digium.com/ - Asterisk is sponsored by Digium
Mark Spencer <markster@digium.com>
Countless other contributors, see CREDITS with distribution for
more information.