Ubuntu Manpage: svxlink - A general purpose voice services system for ham radio use

Provided by: svxlink-server_25.05.1-2_amd64

NAME

       svxlink - A general purpose voice services system for ham radio use

SYNOPSIS

       svxlink  [--help] [--daemon] [--quiet] [--reset] [--version] [--logfile=log file] [--config=configuration
       file] [--pidfile=pid file] [--runasuser=user name]

DESCRIPTION

       svxlink is a general purpose voice service system  for  ham  radio  use.  The  SvxLink  project  contains
       multiple applications and this man-page describe the SvxLink server.

OPTIONS

       --help Print a help message and exit.

       --daemon
              Start the SvxLink server as a daemon.

       --runasuser=username
              Start  the  SvxLink server as the specified user. The switch to the new user will happen after the
              log and pid files has been opened.

       --logfile=log file
              Specify a log file to put all output into. Both stdout and stderr will be redirected  to  the  log
              file.

       --pidfile=pid file
              Specify a pid file to write the process ID into.

       --config=configuration file
              Specify which configuration file to use.

       --reset
              Do  a  normal  application  startup,  initializing  everything,  but  exit  immediately  when  the
              initialization is done.

       --quiet
              Don't output any info messages, just warnings and errors.

       --version
              Print the application version then exit.

REFLECTOR SERVER CONNECTION

The SvxReflector server is an application that provide a hub for multiple SvxLink nodes to connect to for
performing audio streaming between the nodes.

The SvxReflector system features separation of audio streams in talkgroups so that multiple QSOs can be
routed through the reflector server without interfering with each other.

Authentication to the reflector server is done using X.509 certificates. It is a complex technology but
most details are hidden for a SvxLink node sysop. However, the node sysop need to know a few things for
smooth operations of the node.

When a SvxLink node connect to the reflector server for the first time, it will request a signed
certificate. Signing a certificate is a manual process on the SvxReflector side so it may take a while
for the reflector sysop to perform the signing. The node will not be able to connect to the reflector
until the certificate has been signed but it will retry continuously. When the reflector sysop has signed
the certificate it will be sent to the node when it connects the next time. After that the node is
granted access to the reflector.

A certificate has a limited lifetime. In SvxLink that is fixed to three months. When there is one third
left of the lifetime a new certificate will be signed automatically by the reflector server. No manual
interaction is needed by the node sysop nor the reflector sysop. However, if the certificate pass its end
of life a new manual signing process is needed.

During the certificate creation process there are a number of important files generated. Ensure that you
back up these files. For example, you will at least need to restore the key-file after reinstalling the
node OS. See FILES below for more information about these files.

FILES

/etc/svxlink/svxlink.conf (or deprecated /etc/svxlink.conf)
The system wide configuration file. See svxlink.conf(5) for further details.

~/.svxlink/svxlink.conf
Per user configuration file. See svxlink.conf(5) for further details.

/etc/svxlink/svxlink.d/*
Additional configuration files. Typically one configuration file per module.

/var/lib/svxlink/pki/MYCALL.key
Key file used for authenticating to a SvxReflector server. Make sure that you don't loose this
file since you then will not be able to log in to the reflector server. This file must also be
kept secret since anyone possessing it can log in to the reflector server in the name of the key
owner.

/var/lib/svxlink/pki/MYCALL.csr
File containing the certificate signing request for the SvxReflector authentication certificate.
This file is auto generated if missing and updated if SvxLink certificate configuration has
changed. It can be used to sign a certificate "out-of-band" if the reflector server owner has such
a procedure. Otherwise it's just used internally by SvxLink.

/var/lib/svxlink/pki/MYCALL.crt
File containing the certificate used to authenticate to the SvxReflector server. It's good to back
this file up as well but if it's lost, the reflector server _may_ be able to send it to the
SvxLink node upon connect.

ENVIRONMENT

       ASYNC_AUDIO_NOTRIGGER
              Set  this environment variable to 1 if you get an error about ioctl: Broken pipe during startup of
              the SvxLink server when using OSS audio.

       ASYNC_AUDIO_ALSA_ZEROFILL
              Set this environment variable to 0 to stop the Alsa audio code from writing  zeros  to  the  audio
              device  when  there is no audio to write available.  ASYNC_AUDIO_UDP_ZEROFILL Set this environment
              variable to 1 to enable the UDP audio code to write zeros to the UDP connection when there  is  no
              audio to write available.

       HOME   Used to find the per user configuration file.

AUTHOR

       Tobias Blomberg (SM0SVX) <sm0svx at svxlink dot org>

REPORTING BUGS

       Bugs should be reported using the issue tracker at https://github.com/sm0svx/svxlink.

       Questions  about  SvxLink  should  not be asked using the issue tracker. Instead use the group set up for
       this purpose at groups.io: https://groups.io/g/svxlink