[Asterisk-Users] mpg123 removal

[James Harper]

> 
> Almost certainly a memory leak in mpg123 is not the cause of a system
> crash.  First off, there is no such leak.  Second even if there were
> one the mpg123 process is not long lived.  A new one is started for
> each MOH session.
> 
> If mpg123 is causing the crash then it may be due simply because of
> all the extra CPU time required to transcode the music.  If there are
> 10 lines on hold then there woud be 10 copies of mpg123 running
> on the server.
> 

Are you sure about the above? The last time I watched my asterisk
server, an mpg123 process was started when asterisk started, and no more
are created no matter how many calls are listening to it. The process
appears to be suspended when nothing is using its output (eg with an
extension programmed to go direct to MOH, if I dial the extension,
listen for 5 seconds, hang up, wait 10 seconds, and then dial the MOH
extension again, the sound is exactly at the point I left it). The only
extra overhead I can imagine relating to multiple calls is if asterisk
had to transcode per call.

This was true as of 1.0.9 and 1.2.1 if my observations are correct.
Assuming of course that everyone is listening to the same MOH class(?).

Could it be that it depends on the MOH configuration as to if mpg123
processes are started per server or per call? Please enlighten me if you
know something I don't :)

On an unrelated note, I would like to use the same MOH process to output
audio via the sound card to run MOH for a legacy PBX, but as is I need
to start a separate process... anyone done this before using the
Asterisk MOH process?

Thanks

James