• To disconnect from a connected remote console, simply hit Ctrl+C:

  asterisk-server*CLI> 
  Disconnected from Asterisk server
  Asterisk cleanly ending (0).
  Executing last minute cleanups

• To shut down Asterisk, issue core stop gracefully:

  asterisk-server*CLI> core stop gracefully
  Disconnected from Asterisk server
  Asterisk cleanly ending (0).
  Executing last minute cleanups

  Icon

  You can stop/restart Asterisk in many ways. See Stopping and Restarting Asterisk From The CLI for more information.

• You can start Asterisk in the foreground, with an attached root console, using the -c option:

  # asterisk -c
  
  Asterisk 11.9.0, Copyright (C) 1999 - 2014 Digium, Inc. and others.
  Created by Mark Spencer <[email protected]>
  Asterisk comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; type 'core show warranty' for details.
  This is free software, with components licensed under the GNU General Public
  License version 2 and other licenses; you are welcome to redistribute it under
  certain conditions. Type 'core show license' for details.
  =========================================================================
  Connected to Asterisk 11.9.0 currently running on asterisk-server (pid = 26246)
  [May 16 17:02:50] NOTICE[27035]: loader.c:1323 load_modules: 287 modules will be loaded.
  Asterisk Ready.
  *CLI> 

Adding Verbosity

Asterisk provides a number of mechanisms to control the verbosity of its logging. One way in which this can be controlled is through the command line parameter -v. For each -v specified, Asterisk will increase the level of VERBOSE messages by 1. The following will create a console and set the VERBOSE message level to 2:

# asterisk -c -v -v

Command line parameters can be combined. The previous command can also be invoked in the following way:

# asterisk -cvv

Remote Console Verbosity

The verboseness of a remote console is set independently of the verboseness of other consoles and the core. A root console can be created with no verboseness:

# asterisk -c

While a remote console can be attached to that Asterisk process with a different verbosity:

# asterisk -rvvv

Multiple remote consoles can be attached, each with their own verbosity:

# asterisk -rv

Executing as another User

Asterisk can be run as another user using the -U option:

# asterisk -U asteriskuser

Often, this option is specified in conjunction with the -G option, which specifies the group to run under:

# asterisk -U asteriskuser -G asteriskuser

When running Asterisk as another user, make sure that user owns the various directories that Asterisk will access:

# sudo chown -R asteriskuser:asteriskuser /usr/lib/asterisk
# sudo chown -R asteriskuser:asteriskuser /var/lib/asterisk
# sudo chown -R asteriskuser:asteriskuser /var/spool/asterisk
# sudo chown -R asteriskuser:asteriskuser /var/log/asterisk
# sudo chown -R asteriskuser:asteriskuser /var/run/asterisk
# sudo chown asteriskuser:asteriskuser /usr/sbin/asterisk

More Options

There are many more command line options available. For more information, use the -h option:

# asterisk -h
Asterisk 11.9.0, Copyright (C) 1999 - 2014, Digium, Inc. and others.
Usage: asterisk [OPTIONS]
...

Running Asterisk as a Service

The most common way to run Asterisk in a production environment is as a service. Asterisk includes both a make target for installing Asterisk as a service, as well as a script - live_asterisk - that will manage the service and automatically restart Asterisk in case of errors.

• Asterisk can be installed as a service using the make config target:

  # make config
     /etc/rc0.d/K91asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
     /etc/rc1.d/K91asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
     /etc/rc6.d/K91asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
     /etc/rc2.d/S50asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
     /etc/rc3.d/S50asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
     /etc/rc4.d/S50asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk
     /etc/rc5.d/S50asterisk -> ../init.d/asterisk

• Asterisk can now be started as a service:

  # service asterisk start
   * Starting Asterisk PBX: asterisk                                                                               [ OK ] 

• And stopped:

  # service asterisk stop
   * Stopping Asterisk PBX: asterisk                                                                               [ OK ] 

• And restarted:

  # service asterisk restart
   * Stopping Asterisk PBX: asterisk                                                                               [ OK ] 
   * Starting Asterisk PBX: asterisk                                                                               [ OK ]

Supported Distributions

Not all distributions of Linux/Unix are supported by the make config target. The following distributions are supported - if not using one of these distributions, the make config target may or may not work for you.

• RedHat/CentOS
• Debian/Ubuntu
• Gentoo
• Mandrake/Mandriva
• SuSE/Novell