---
name: "yate"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "yate"
version: "6.4.1-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/yate"
---

# yate(8)

launch the YATE telephony engine

## NAME

**yate** - launch the YATE telephony engine

## SYNOPSIS

**yate** \[options\] \[commands\]

## DESCRIPTION

**yate** is a telephony engine that supports client, PBX and IVR functions trough plugins.

## OPTIONS

### General

- **-h, --help**

  Display a short help message and exit

- **-V, --version**

  Display program version and exit

- **-v**

  Verbose logging (you can use more than once)

- **-q**

  Quieter logging (you can use more than once)

- **-d**

  Daemonify, suppress output unless logged

- **-s\[=msec\]**

  Supervised, restart if crashes or locks up, optionally sleeps initially

- **-r**

  Enable rotation of log file (needs -s and -l)

- **-l *filename***

  Log to file - should be used whenever running in daemon mode

- **-p *filename***

  Write PID of the supervisor or primary thread to file

- **-n *configname***

  Use specified configuration name, overrides default "yate"

- **-c *pathname***

  Path to conf files directory, overrides compiled-in value

- **-u *pathname***

  Path to user data files directory, overrides compiled-in value

- **-m *pathname***

  Path to modules directory, overrides compiled-in value

- **-e *pathname***

  Path to shared directory, overrides compiled-in value

- **-x *dirpath***

  Absolute or relative path to extra modules directory (can be repeated)

- **-w *directory***

  Change working directory

- **-N *nodename***

  Set the name of the node in a cluster

### Debugging options (may not be compiled in)

- **-C**

  Enable core dumps if supported by the operating system

- **-F**

  Increase the maximum file handle to compiled value

- **-S**

  Set size of supervised sanity points pool

- **-t**

  Truncate the log file instead of appending to it

- **-D\[options\]**

  Special debugging options

- **-Da**

  Abort (coredumps if allowed) if bugs are encountered

- **-Dm**

  Attempt to debug mutex deadlocks by setting a maximum 10s limit, if repeated halves the limit

- **-Dd**

  Enable some locking debugging and safety features, degrades performance

- **-Dl**

  Attempt to load modules without having their symbols globally visible

- **-Dc**

  Call *dlclose()* until it gets an error

- **-Du**

  Do not unload modules, just try to call thier finalization code

- **-Di**

  Reinitialize after first initialization

- **-Dx**

  Exit immediately after initialization

- **-Dw**

  Delay for one second the creation of the first worker thread

- **-Do**

  Colorize the output using ANSI control character sequences

- **-Ds**

  Abort if bugs are encountered even during shutdown

- **-DO**

  Attempt to debug all object allocations by counting objects per plugin, degrades performance

- **-Dn**

  Do not add timestamps to debugging messages

- **-Dt**

  Add start time relative timestamps to debugging messages

- **-De**

  Add EPOCH (1-1-1970 GMT) based timestamps to debugging messages

- **-Df**

  Add GMT timestamps to debugging messages in format YYYYMMDDhhmmss.uuuuuu

- **-DF**

  Add GMT timestamps to debugging messages in format YYYY-MM-DD\_hh:mm:ss.uuuuuu

- **-Dz**

  Add local timezone timestamps to debugging messages in format YYYYMMDDhhmmss.uuuuuu

- **-DZ**

  Add local timezone timestamps to debugging messages in format YYYY-MM-DD\_hh:mm:ss.uuuuuu

## COMMANDS

Each command is sent to the YATE modules immediately after initialization. Modules define command syntax so that is not described here. Please look at the documentation for each module.

## SIGNALS

- \- SIGTERM and SIGINT (Ctrl-C) will cleanly stop the engine

  - \- SIGQUIT (Ctrl-\\) will reinitialize the modules

  - \- SIGHUP will reinitialize the modules if started in daemon mode (-d)

  - \- SIGUSR1 will initiate a gracefull restart (when no plugin is busy)

  - \- SIGUSR2 will initiate an immediate restart

  ## BUGS

Under various **\*BSD** implementations the *dlclose()* function is broken and may generate a segfault on exit.

Some **libpthread** implementations are broken and may fail to start the threads or fail to cleanup when the thread terminates.

## AUTHORS

Paul Chitescu \<paulc@voip.null.ro\>\
 Diana Cionoiu \<diana@voip.null.ro\>

## SEE ALSO

[**yate-config**(8)](/yate-config/8.md)