.TH Asterisk 1
.SH NAME
Asterisk \-   Asterisk is an open source PBX that manages VOIP and PSTN networks.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B asterisk
[ \-hrfnpvqgicd ] [ \-x <cli cmd> ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I  Asterisk
is a complete PBX in software. It runs on Linux and provides all of the features you would expect from a PBX and more. Asterisk does voice over IP in three protocols, and can interoperate with almost all standards-based telephony equipment using relatively inexpensive hardware.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-h 
Listing of options
.TP
.B \-r
Connect to Asterisk on this machine
.TP
.B \-f
Do not fork
.TP
.B \-n
Disable console colorization
.TP
.B \-p
Run as pseudo-realtime thread
.TP
.B \-v
Increase verbosity (multiple v's = more verbose, max 4)
.TP
.B \-q
Quiet mode (supress output)
.TP
.B \-g
Dump core in case of a crash
.TP
.B \-x <cmd>
Execute CLI command <cmd> (only valid with -r)
.TP
.B \-i
Initializie crypto keys at startup
.TP
.B \-c
Provide console CLI
.TP
.B \-d
Enable extra debugging
.SH CONFIGURATION
.TB
.B asterisk 
config files are found under /etc/asterisk/ and can generally be re-read while running with the CLI 'reload' without affecting service.  The sample config files 
.B (make samples)
provide documentation on their settings.
.TP
Every config file can use an #include directive to load other files holding configuration information.  This allows breaking different services, users, contexts, and anything else out into separate easily managed files.
.TP
You can issue 'reload' from the CLI or `asterisk -rx"reload"` from a shell to re-read all configuration data and make it active.
.SH EXAMPLES
.TB
.ps 5
.ta 1i
 # asterisk -vvvg& asterisk -vvvvr

 starts asterisk in the background and then provies a console with most verbose messaging.
 
.SH FILES
.TP
.B /usr/sbin/asterisk
This is the core asterisk binary.
.TP
.B /etc/asterisk/*
The configuration files.
.TP
.B /var/lib/asterisk/
Support files like RSA keys, firmware, sounds, astdb etc.
.SH NOTES
.TB
Asterisk receives numerous updates per day to the -head branch.  Please use the stable branch if you need more consistency.
.TP
Search the archives before posting:  http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/
.SH KNOWN ISSUES
Mantis sucks (you can't use w3m or lynx w/ it).

.SH SUPPORT & DOCUMENTATION
.TP
.B Community:
There is a lot of community involvment in the support and development of Asterisk.  To neglect these resources is to ignore your greatest resource.

Great support site:  http://www.voip-info.org/
.TP
.B Mailing Lists:
asterisk-users@digium.com - Asterisk user community

asterisk-dev@digium.com - Asterisk development, new features and unstable version

User Archives:  http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/
.TP
.B Commercial:
Commercial support is available from Digium as well as many consultants listed at voip-info.org.

.SH BUGS
Please file verified bugs to http://bugs.digium.com/
.SH AUTHORS
.PP
cap'n mark and the funky bunch
.br
keebler elves
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR MPG123 (1),
.BR SENDMAIL (1)