[Asterisk-Users] Changing Asterisk install location...

[Douglas Garstang]

Has anyone tried to (recently) install asterisk in a location not relative to /, as a non-root user? Ie editting the PREFIX directive in Makefile.
 
Why? Several quite obvious reasons:
 
a). Allows an asterisk user to be created, and operators to log into the box as asterisk user, without having root access.
b). Much easier backups, because everything is beneath the same directory structure.
c). Ability to either run multiple instances of asterisk, or in an emergency, easily install a second copy of asterisk in another location and test it without affecting the existing installation.
 
I did this without issue back in Asterisk 1.0.9/1.2.1. Well now.we have the following issues on startup in 1.2.3.
 
a) db.c:67 dbinit: Unable to open Asterisk database
Looks like it's still looking for astdb in /var/lib/asterisk Why?
 
b) pbx_spool.c:401 scan_thread: Unable to open directory /var/spool/asterisk/outgoing.
Well, duh it isn't there, because I quite clearly told you to install under /home/asterisk!
 
c) It's also still writing log data to /var/log/asterisk
 
d) I think there where a few more errors as well...
 
I'm guessing no one in Digium's QA team has actually tested installing Asterisk like this..... *sigh*
 
Doug.