Provided by: ejabberd_2.1.11-1ubuntu2.1_amd64 
NAME
ejabberd — a distributed fault-tolerant Jabber/XMPP server
SYNOPSIS
ejabberd [options] [--] [erlang_options]
DESCRIPTION
ejabberd is a distributed fault-tolerant Jabber/XMPP server written in Erlang.
Its main features are:
— XMPP-compliant
— Distributed: ejabberd can run on a cluster of machines
— Fault-tolerant: All the information can be stored on more than one node, nodes can be added or replaced
`on the fly'
— Built-in Multi-User Chat service
— Built-in IRC transport
— Built-in Publish-Subscribe service
— Built-in Jabber User Directory service based on users vCards
— SSL support
— Support for internationalized user messages
OPTIONS
--node node
Specifies Erlang node at which ejabberd server will be run. Default node is ejabberd. If the node
name does not contain symbol @ then actual node name becomes node@hostname where hostname is short
host name (usually it coincides with `hostname -s`). If the node name contain symbol @ and its
hostname part is a FQDN then ejabberd will use so-called long names (see erl(1) manual page and
look for options -name and -sname for details).
Examples of --node option:
ejabberd Locally run ejabberd server at node ejabberd@`hostname -s`.
ejabberd@otherhost Pretend that ejabberd server runs at otherhost at node ejabberd@otherhost.
(Note that noone can remotely connect to this node if otherhost is resoved to other computer IP.)
ejabberd@localhost Locally run ejabberd server at node ejabberd@localhost. Only nodes running at
the same host can connect to this node.
ejabberd@hostname.domainname Using -name Erlang option, run ejabberd server at long-name node
ejabberd@hostname.domainname. To be able to control this server instance hostname.domainname must
resolve (either by DNS or via /etc/hosts) to the server's IP.
The default node can be overridden by defining ERLANG_NODE environment variable in /etc/default/ejabberd,
see below.
--config config-file
Specifies an alternate config-file to be parsed at startup, rather than the default
(/etc/ejabberd/ejabberd.cfg).
--spool spool-dir
Specifies an alternate spool-dir to store user database instead of the default
(/var/lib/ejabberd).
--log log-file
Log Jabber events to specified log-file rather than to the default
(/var/log/ejabberd/ejabberd.log).
--erlang-log sasl-log-file
Log SASL (System Application Support Libraries) events to specified sasl-log-file rather than to
the default (/var/log/ejabberd/erlang.log).
erlang_options
Other options (and all options following --) are passed directly to Erlang interpreter. See Erlang
documentation for more details on interpreter options. Some useful options are:
-detached
Starts the Erlang system detached from the system console.
-heart
Starts heart beat monitoring of the Erlang system.
-noinput
Ensures that the Erlang system never tries to read any input.
CONFIGURATION FILE
The file /etc/ejabberd/ejabberd.cfg contains the main configuration. It is initially loaded the first
time ejabberd is executed, then it is parsed and stored in a database. Subsiquently the configuration is
loaded from the database and any commands in the configuration file are appended to the entries in the
database. The configuration file consists of a sequence of Erlang terms. Parts of lines after `%' sign
are ignored. Each term is a tuple, where the first element is the name of an option, and the others are
option values. E. g. if this file does not contain a "host" definition, then the value stored in the
database will be used.
To override old values stored in the database the following lines can be added in config:
override_global.
override_local.
override_acls.
A complete explanation of each configuration value can be found in the official ejabberd documentation.
See "SEE ALSO" part of this manual page for more information about the documentation.
OPTIONS FILE
The file /etc/default/ejabberd contains specific options.
POLL If set to true this variable enables kernel polling which can reduce CPU load on a system with a
high number of users. This option requires support in the kernel and in Erlang emulator.
SMP Enables or disables SMP support in Erlang emulator. Valid values are disable (default), auto, and
enable.
Explanation in Erlang/OTP documentation:
enable: Starts the Erlang runtime system with SMP support enabled. This may fail if no runtime
system with SMP support is available.
auto: Starts the Erlang runtime system with SMP support enabled if it is available and more than
one logical processor are detected.
disable: Starts a runtime system without SMP support.
ERL_MAX_PORTS
To use more than 1024 connections (default value), ERL_MAX_PORTS should be set to the number of
connections needed.
PROCESSES
Specifies the maximum number of Erlang processes to use. Default value is 250000. Maximum value
is 268435456. Ejabberd uses up to three processes per user or server connection.
ERL_MAX_ETS_TABLES
Sets the maximum number of ETS and Mnesia tables. Default value is 1400 which should be sufficient
for a sever without many custom modules. If a message ** Too many db tables ** appears in ejabberd
log files then increase this number.
ERL_OPTIONS
With this option, parameters can be passed to Erlang interpretor. See Erlang documentation for
more details on interpreter options.
ERL_FULLSWEEP_AFTER
To reduce memory usage when allowing a large number of connections, ERL_FULLSWEEP_AFTER may be set
to 0 in the options file, but in this case ejabberd may start to work slower.
ERLANG_NODE
Use specified string as erlang node. It overrides default ejabberd node name. The string may take
one of the following forms: nodename, nodename@hostname or nodename@hostname.domainname
FILES
/etc/ejabberd/ejabberd.cfg
default configuration file
/etc/default/ejabberd
default variables
BUGS
Ejabberd uses distributed Erlang mode to work properly. This means that on start it connects to epmd
(Erlang port mapping daemon) which is listening at port 4369 and tries to register ejabberd node name. If
the connection fails (known failure reasons are unavailability of a loopback interface or firewall
issues) Erlang emulator fails to start with not very clear error message. If there's already started
Erlang node with the same name (ejabberd by default) then ejabberd will also fail with a cryptic error
message (in which one can find words {error,duplicate_name}). Another possible case when ejabberd cannot
start is incorrect permissions of /var/lib/ejabberd directory (it must be writable by user ejabberd).
SEE ALSO
erl(1), sasl(6), ejabberdctl(8), epmd.
The program documentation is available at http://www.process-one.net/en/projects/ejabberd/. A copy of
the documentation can be found at /usr/share/doc/ejabberd/guide.html.
AUTHORS
This manual page was adapted by Christophe Romain <christophe.romain@process-one.net> and Sergei Golovan
<sgolovan@nes.ru> for the Debian system (but may be used by others) from the ejabberd documentation
written by Alexey Shchepin <alexey@sevcom.net>.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General
Public License, Version 2 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in
/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.
Version 2.0.1 08 June 2008 ejabberd(8)