compiling_and_installing.md

Compiling and Installing

Package Repositories

Prebuilt packages for some newer releases of Debian are available on this repository

Compiling on a Debian System

On a Debian system, everything can be built and packaged into Debian packages by executing dpkg-buildpackage (which can be found in the dpkg-dev package) in the main directory. This script will issue an error and stop if any of the dependency packages are not installed. The script dpkg-checkbuilddeps can be used to check missing dependencies. (See the note about G.729 at the end of this section.)

This will produce a number of .deb files, which can then be installed using the dpkg -i command.

The generated files are (with version 6.2.0.0 being built on an amd64 system):

• ngcp-rtpengine_6.2.0.0+0~mr6.2.0.0_all.deb

  This is a meta-package, which doesn't contain or install anything on its own, but rather only depends on the other packages to be installed. Not strictly necessary to be installed.

• ngcp-rtpengine-daemon_6.2.0.0+0~mr6.2.0.0_amd64.deb

  This installed the userspace daemon, which is the main workhorse of rtpengine. This is the minimum requirement for anything to work.

• ngcp-rtpengine-iptables_6.2.0.0+0~mr6.2.0.0_amd64.deb

  Installs the plugin for iptables and ip6tables. Necessary for in-kernel operation.

• ngcp-rtpengine-kernel-dkms_6.2.0.0+0~mr6.2.0.0_all.deb

  Kernel module, DKMS version of the package. Recommended for in-kernel operation. The kernel module will be compiled against the currently running kernel using DKMS.

• ngcp-rtpengine-kernel-source_6.2.0.0+0~mr6.2.0.0_all.deb

  If DKMS is unavailable or not desired, then this package will install the sources for the kernel module for manual compilation. Required for in-kernel operation, but only if the DKMS package can't be used.

• ngcp-rtpengine-recording-daemon_6.2.0.0+0~mr6.2.0.0_amd64.deb

  Optional separate userspace daemon used for call recording features.

• -dbg... or -dbgsym... packages

  Debugging symbols for the various components. Optional.

For transcoding purposes, Debian provides an additional package libavcodec-extra to replace the regular libavcodec package. It is recommended to install this extra package to offer support for additional codecs.

To support the G.729 codec for transcoding purposes, the external library bcg729 is required. Please see the section on G.729 support below for details.

Manual Compilation

There are 3 main parts to rtpengine plus one optional component, which can be found in the respective subdirectories. Running make on the top source directory will build all parts. Running make check additionally will run the test suite.

• daemon

  The userspace daemon and workhorse, minimum requirement for anything to work. Running make will compile the binary, which will be called rtpengine. The following software packages including their development headers are required to compile the daemon:

  • pkg-config
  • GLib including GThread and GLib-JSON version 2.x
  • zlib
  • OpenSSL
  • PCRE library
  • XMLRPC-C version 1.16.08 or higher
  • hiredis library
  • gperf
  • libcurl version 3.x or 4.x
  • libevent version 2.x
  • libpcap
  • libsystemd
  • spandsp
  • MySQL or MariaDB client library (optional for media playback and call recording daemon)
  • libiptc library for iptables management (optional)
  • ffmpeg codec libraries for transcoding (optional) such as libavcodec, libavfilter, libswresample
  • bcg729 for full G.729 transcoding support (optional)
  • libmosquitto
  • libwebsockets
  • libopus

  The Makefile contains a few Debian-specific flags, which may have to removed for compilation to be successful. This will not affect operation in any way.

  If you do not wish to (or cannot) compile the optional iptables management feature, the Makefile also contains a switch to disable it. See the --iptables-chain option for a description. The name of the make switch and its default value is with_iptables_option=yes.

  Similarly, the transcoding feature can be excluded via a switch in the Makefile, making it unnecessary to have the ffmpeg libraries installed. The name of the make switch and its default value is with_transcoding=yes.

  Both Makefile switches can be provided to the make system via environment variables, for example by building with the shell command with_transcoding=no make.

• iptables-extension

  Required for in-kernel packet forwarding.

  With the iptables development headers installed, issuing make will compile the plugin for iptables and ip6tables. The file will be called libxt_RTPENGINE.so and needs to be copied into the xtables module directory. It is copied on make install. The location of this directory can be determined through pkg-config xtables --variable=xtlibdir on newer systems, and/or is usually either /lib/xtables/ or /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xtables/.

• kernel-module

  Required for in-kernel packet forwarding.

  Compilation of the kernel module requires the kernel development headers to be installed in /lib/modules/$VERSION/build/, where $VERSION is the output of the command uname -r. For example, if the command uname -r produces the output 3.9-1-amd64, then the kernel headers must be present in /lib/modules/3.9-1-amd64/build/. The last component of this path (build) is usually a symlink somewhere into /usr/src/, which is fine.

  Successful compilation of the module will produce the file xt_RTPENGINE.ko. The module can be inserted into the running kernel manually through insmod xt_RTPENGINE.ko (which will result in an error if depending modules aren't loaded, for example the x_tables module), but it's recommended to copy the module into /lib/modules/$VERSION/updates/, followed by running depmod -a. This copying is performed on make install. After this, the module can be loaded by issuing modprobe xt_RTPENGINE.

• recording-daemon

  Optional component for the call recording feature. Prerequisites are usage of the kernel module and availability of transcoding (via ffmpeg)