Ubuntu Manpage: ejabberd — a distributed fault-tolerant Jabber/XMPP server

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).

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.