have a linux question about mp3s

[Tim Chase]

> You can have asterisk use a streaming source for on-hold
> music.
> 
> "Make a directory and put a 0 size file ending in .mp3." okay
> what do they mean buy that?

It looks like what Asterisk is doing is looking in a specified
directory for any MP3 files to play. By putting a zero-length MP3
in there, it proceeds to the next item in the list. Thus, you'd
do something like the following:

bash> mkdir -p /var/lib/asterisk/mohmp3-empty

bash> cd /var/lib/asterisk/mohmp3-empty

bash> touch empty.mp3

bash> echo "default => 
mp3:/var/lib/asterisk/mohmp3-empty,http://www.example.com:8000/" 
 >> /path/to/musiconhold.conf


where that last one is all on one line, in case Mozilla breaks
the line. It looks like this specifies multiple places for
asterisk to find the music to play. The first looks in the empty
directory, where it successfully finds a file to play, but it's
of zero-length, so it doesn't actually play when it comes up in
the play-list. It then also has the URL for your streaming source
as an alternate location to play. Looks a bit hackish, but if it
works...

-tim