Adding information in the readme about running the install_preqreq script to install components that the ./configure script might indicate as missing. ASTERISK-29976 #close Change-Id: Ic287b46300168729838bddd8f9265e98fc22bce6
273 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
273 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
# The Asterisk(R) Open Source PBX
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```text
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By Mark Spencer <markster@digium.com> and the Asterisk.org developer community.
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Copyright (C) 2001-2021 Sangoma Technologies Corporation and other copyright holders.
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```
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## SECURITY
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It is imperative that you read and fully understand the contents of
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the security information document before you attempt to configure and run
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an Asterisk server.
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See [Important Security Considerations] for more information.
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## WHAT IS ASTERISK ?
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Asterisk is an Open Source PBX and telephony toolkit. It is, in a
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sense, middleware between Internet and telephony channels on the bottom,
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and Internet and telephony applications at the top. However, Asterisk supports
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more telephony interfaces than just Internet telephony. Asterisk also has a
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vast amount of support for traditional PSTN telephony, as well.
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For more information on the project itself, please visit the Asterisk
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[home page] and the official [wiki]. In addition you'll find lots
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of information compiled by the Asterisk community at [voip-info.org].
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There is a book on Asterisk published by O'Reilly under the Creative Commons
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License. It is available in book stores as well as in a downloadable version on
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the [asteriskdocs.org] web site.
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## SUPPORTED OPERATING SYSTEMS
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### Linux
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The Asterisk Open Source PBX is developed and tested primarily on the
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GNU/Linux operating system, and is supported on every major GNU/Linux
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distribution.
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### Others
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Asterisk has also been 'ported' and reportedly runs properly on other
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operating systems as well, including Sun Solaris, Apple's Mac OS X, Cygwin,
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and the BSD variants.
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## GETTING STARTED
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First, be sure you've got supported hardware (but note that you don't need
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ANY special hardware, not even a sound card) to install and run Asterisk.
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Supported telephony hardware includes:
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* All Analog and Digital Interface cards from [Sangoma]
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* QuickNet Internet PhoneJack and LineJack (http://www.quicknet.net)
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* any full duplex sound card supported by ALSA, OSS, or PortAudio
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* any ISDN card supported by mISDN on Linux
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* The Xorcom Astribank channel bank
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* VoiceTronix OpenLine products
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### UPGRADING FROM AN EARLIER VERSION
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If you are updating from a previous version of Asterisk, make sure you
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read the [UPGRADE.txt] file in the source directory. There are some files
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and configuration options that you will have to change, even though we
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made every effort possible to maintain backwards compatibility.
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In order to discover new features to use, please check the configuration
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examples in the [configs] directory of the source code distribution. For a
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list of new features in this version of Asterisk, see the [CHANGES] file.
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### NEW INSTALLATIONS
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Ensure that your system contains a compatible compiler and development
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libraries. Asterisk requires either the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) version
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4.1 or higher, or a compiler that supports the C99 specification and some of
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the gcc language extensions. In addition, your system needs to have the C
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library headers available, and the headers and libraries for ncurses.
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There are many modules that have additional dependencies. To see what
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libraries are being looked for, see `./configure --help`, or run
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`make menuselect` to view the dependencies for specific modules.
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On many distributions, these dependencies are installed by packages with names
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like 'glibc-devel', 'ncurses-devel', 'openssl-devel' and 'zlib-devel'
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or similar.
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So, let's proceed:
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1. Read this file.
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There are more documents than this one in the [doc] directory. You may also
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want to check the configuration files that contain examples and reference
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guides in the [configs] directory.
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2. Run `./configure`
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Execute the configure script to guess values for system-dependent
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variables used during compilation. If the script indicates that some required
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components are missing, you can run `./contrib/scripts/install_prereq install`
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to install the necessary components. Note that this will install all dependencies for every functionality of Asterisk. After running the script, you will need
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to rerun `./configure`.
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3. Run `make menuselect` _\[optional]_
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This is needed if you want to select the modules that will be compiled and to
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check dependencies for various optional modules.
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4. Run `make`
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Assuming the build completes successfully:
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5. Run `make install`
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If this is your first time working with Asterisk, you may wish to install
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the sample PBX, with demonstration extensions, etc. If so, run:
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6. Run `make samples`
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Doing so will overwrite any existing configuration files you have installed.
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7. Finally, you can launch Asterisk in the foreground mode (not a daemon) with:
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```
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# asterisk -vvvc
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```
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You'll see a bunch of verbose messages fly by your screen as Asterisk
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initializes (that's the "very very verbose" mode). When it's ready, if
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you specified the "c" then you'll get a command line console, that looks
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like this:
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```
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*CLI>
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```
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You can type "core show help" at any time to get help with the system. For help
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with a specific command, type "core show help <command>". To start the PBX using
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your sound card, you can type "console dial" to dial the PBX. Then you can use
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"console answer", "console hangup", and "console dial" to simulate the actions
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of a telephone. Remember that if you don't have a full duplex sound card
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(and Asterisk will tell you somewhere in its verbose messages if you do/don't)
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then it won't work right (not yet).
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"man asterisk" at the Unix/Linux command prompt will give you detailed
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information on how to start and stop Asterisk, as well as all the command
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line options for starting Asterisk.
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Feel free to look over the configuration files in `/etc/asterisk`, where you
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will find a lot of information about what you can do with Asterisk.
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### ABOUT CONFIGURATION FILES
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All Asterisk configuration files share a common format. Comments are
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delimited by ';' (since '#' of course, being a DTMF digit, may occur in
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many places). A configuration file is divided into sections whose names
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appear in []'s. Each section typically contains two types of statements,
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those of the form 'variable = value', and those of the form 'object =>
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parameters'. Internally the use of '=' and '=>' is exactly the same, so
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they're used only to help make the configuration file easier to
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understand, and do not affect how it is actually parsed.
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Entries of the form 'variable=value' set the value of some parameter in
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asterisk. For example, in [chan_dahdi.conf], one might specify:
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```
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switchtype=national
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```
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In order to indicate to Asterisk that the switch they are connecting to is
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of the type "national". In general, the parameter will apply to
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instantiations which occur below its specification. For example, if the
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configuration file read:
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```
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switchtype = national
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channel => 1-4
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channel => 10-12
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switchtype = dms100
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channel => 25-47
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```
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The "national" switchtype would be applied to channels one through
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four and channels 10 through 12, whereas the "dms100" switchtype would
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apply to channels 25 through 47.
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The "object => parameters" instantiates an object with the given
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parameters. For example, the line "channel => 25-47" creates objects for
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the channels 25 through 47 of the card, obtaining the settings
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from the variables specified above.
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### SPECIAL NOTE ON TIME
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Those using SIP phones should be aware that Asterisk is sensitive to
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large jumps in time. Manually changing the system time using date(1)
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(or other similar commands) may cause SIP registrations and other
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internal processes to fail. If your system cannot keep accurate time
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by itself use [NTP] to keep the system clock
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synchronized to "real time". NTP is designed to keep the system clock
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synchronized by speeding up or slowing down the system clock until it
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is synchronized to "real time" rather than by jumping the time and
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causing discontinuities. Most Linux distributions include precompiled
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versions of NTP. Beware of some time synchronization methods that get
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the correct real time periodically and then manually set the system
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clock.
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Apparent time changes due to daylight savings time are just that,
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apparent. The use of daylight savings time in a Linux system is
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purely a user interface issue and does not affect the operation of the
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Linux kernel or Asterisk. The system clock on Linux kernels operates
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on UTC. UTC does not use daylight savings time.
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Also note that this issue is separate from the clocking of TDM
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channels, and is known to at least affect SIP registrations.
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### FILE DESCRIPTORS
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Depending on the size of your system and your configuration,
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Asterisk can consume a large number of file descriptors. In UNIX,
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file descriptors are used for more than just files on disk. File
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descriptors are also used for handling network communication
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(e.g. SIP, IAX2, or H.323 calls) and hardware access (e.g. analog and
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digital trunk hardware). Asterisk accesses many on-disk files for
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everything from configuration information to voicemail storage.
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Most systems limit the number of file descriptors that Asterisk can
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have open at one time. This can limit the number of simultaneous
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calls that your system can handle. For example, if the limit is set
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at 1024 (a common default value) Asterisk can handle approximately 150
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SIP calls simultaneously. To change the number of file descriptors
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follow the instructions for your system below:
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#### PAM-BASED LINUX SYSTEM
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If your system uses PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) edit
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`/etc/security/limits.conf`. Add these lines to the bottom of the file:
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```text
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root soft nofile 4096
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root hard nofile 8196
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asterisk soft nofile 4096
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asterisk hard nofile 8196
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```
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(adjust the numbers to taste). You may need to reboot the system for
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these changes to take effect.
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#### GENERIC UNIX SYSTEM
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If there are no instructions specifically adapted to your system
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above you can try adding the command `ulimit -n 8192` to the script
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that starts Asterisk.
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## MORE INFORMATION
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See the [doc] directory for more documentation on various features.
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Again, please read all the configuration samples that include documentation
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on the configuration options.
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Finally, you may wish to visit the [support] site and join the [mailing
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list] if you're interested in getting more information.
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Welcome to the growing worldwide community of Asterisk users!
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```
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Mark Spencer, and the Asterisk.org development community
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```
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---
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Asterisk is a trademark of Sangoma Technologies Corporation
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[home page]: https://www.asterisk.org
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[support]: https://www.asterisk.org/support
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[wiki]: https://wiki.asterisk.org/
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[mailing list]: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
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[chan_dahdi.conf]: configs/samples/chan_dahdi.conf.sample
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[voip-info.org]: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk
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[asteriskdocs.org]: http://www.asteriskdocs.org
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[NTP]: http://www.ntp.org/
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[Sangoma]: https://www.sangoma.com/
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[UPGRADE.txt]: UPGRADE.txt
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[CHANGES]: CHANGES
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[configs]: configs
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[doc]: doc
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[Important Security Considerations]: https://wiki.asterisk.org/wiki/display/AST/Important+Security+Considerations
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