Appendix E. Asterisk Command-Line Interface Reference

To access the Asterisk command-line interface (CLI), pass the -c or -r argument to the Asterisk executable. In other words, type this from your shell prompt:

    # asterisk -r

If you want the system to provide you with more information about what it is doing (an excellent idea, especially when you're new to Asterisk), you can add the argument -v, as many times as you'd like:

    # asterisk -vvvvvvvvr

The more vs you include, the more vvvvvvvvvverbose the output will be.

The CLI allows you to interact with a running Asterisk server, and it will be very useful to you for troubleshooting and monitoring.

Since the CLI employs tabbed name completion, you can press the Tab key to see a list of possible commands. This makes the CLI very easy to use. Let's take a look at the commands.