Also known as AstDB; the Asterisk database uses version 1 of the Berkley DB which works very much like the Windows registry.

From the source code of db.c:


Database data are grouped in families and identified with a key that is unique within the family.

Families

• cidname; used by LookupCIDName
• blacklist: used by LookupBlacklist

Applications

These are database operations that you can use from the dial plan in extensions.conf:

• DBdel: Delete a key from the database
• DBdeltree: Delete a family or keytree from the database
• DBget: Retrieve a value from the database
• DBput: Store a value in the database

There are other commands you can use from the command line interface.

Examples

• Web based Asterisk Database maintenance
• Simple web interface for editing values in the Asterisk database
• See Asterisk call forwarding

Script libraries: PERL and PHP

• PERL: The module DB_File supports Berkeley DB version 1, as used in Asterisk. You have to make sure you compile it for version 1 and libdb1.a (as found in the db1-ast directory in your source tree.

• PHP: Look at at the (deprecated) "dbm" DBA handler

Backup/Restore

If you use the builtin database to store stuff like CFD numbers and speeddials it makes sense to create a backup once in a while. The database is normally stored in the file /var/lib/asterisk/astdb. Also, since it's a normal Berkely db1 (version185) file its contents can be viewed/dumped with the standard db1_dump185 tool. Thus db1_dump185 -p /var/lib/asterisk/astdb will show the complete database tree.

See also:

• Asterisk app_dbodbc: An implementation of the same functionality using unixODBC
• Asterisk - documentation of application commands
• DBQuery: An application which does allow you to execute sql queries againt a MySQL Server out of the dialplan.

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