rate.conf(5) isdnlog 4.71 rate.conf(5)NAME
/etc/isdn/rate.conf - rate and provider configuration
DESCRIPTION
isdnlog and related programs like isdnrep or isdnrate obtain the infor‐
mation about telephone rates or fees from a rate-file. In addition to
the general data from the rate-file it is necessary to provide informa‐
tion about the individual situation. This is the purpose of the con‐
figuration file rate.conf.
Words below consisting of uppercase letters like RATEFILE refer to the
so named setting in the general isdnlog configuration file
/etc/isdn/isdn.conf.
General Concepts
The rate-file contains one or more providers for a country. A provider
covers an offer of a telephone company. Usually there are now many
telephone companies in a country and most companies offer several dif‐
ferent price lists.
A provider is identified by provider number and provider variant or sub
number. The provider number, short pnum, is commonly used for all
offers of one company. The provider variant, short var, is used to
number these offers starting from 0. A specific provider is referenced
as pnum,var or pnum_var depending on the context.
VBN contains the shared leading digits of the carrier selection pre‐
fixes. The entire prefix for a provider is specified in the rate-file
by the B: tag. In Germany the carrier selection prefix begins with 010
followed by two or three digits which make the pnum ranging from 10 to
199. A mapping like this is not required but common.
The overall format of rate.conf is similar to the rate-file, lines
starting with tags P:, X:, or Q: may occur in any order and quantity.
(Of course, the resulting configuration should make sense.)
Provider Booking
P:pnum=var
Mark the provider specified by pnum and var as booked or active. Only
booked providers are taken into account when isdnlog computes the con‐
nection costs. Booking also tells isdnlog the provider variant to use
if there are more than one.
Beside computation of real connections booking also splits the
providers in two groups: the booked ones that are available at the spe‐
cific subscriber line at the not booked ones that are less important
for price comparison.
One provider in booked group is declared the default provider by set‐
ting PRESELECTED to its pnum. This provider is assumed to be used if a
connection is made without a carrier selection prefix and no exceptions
matching.
Exceptions to Provider Selection
X:number=pnum
X:number=pnumzzone
Connections to number will be assigned the booked provider with pnum as
provider number regardless of a dialed provider selection prefix or the
PRESELECTED setting. zone if present replaces the normal zone selec‐
tion based on destination codes. Exceptions can also be given in the
rate-file.
In rate.conf exceptions may become necessary if there different prese‐
lected providers for local and distance calls for example or if prese‐
lection does not apply generally, e.g. not for connections to special
numbers.
Provider Skipping
At least for some countries there are universal rate-files distributed
with isdnlog or provided elsewhere. In this case it is desirable to
keep the rate-file unmodified so that updates require no further
changes beyond installing the new rate-file. If a rate-file aims to
cover the telephone market in an entire nation there will be always
providers in it which are not available or not suitable for a specific
installation. Such providers can be disabled by not booking them but
they remain present and may be displayed as overall cheapest provider
or the like.
Provider skipping completely ignores selected, so called skipped
providers, from the rate-file. To be more precise, the effect of
skipped provider could also be achieved by deleting its lines starting
from its P: tag to the last line before the P: tag of the next provider
from the rate-file.
Providers to skip can also be configured in the parameter file of
isdnlog using the syntax described below in a line starting with skip‐
Prov= instead of Q:.
Q:[!|~]list
list := range[;list]
range := (*|prov|prov-|-prov|prov-prov)[!|~]
prov := pnum[,var]
Skipping applies to all providers that are matched by a given range.
If var is missing, all providers with pnum are skipped.
* matches all providers.
Booked providers are not skipped unless ! is given at end of the range
or in front of the entire list where it applies to whole line.
The ~ can be given alternatively to !. Providers that match such a
range are not skipped under any circumstances.
Space can occur anywhere in the line after Q:.
Example:
Q:*; 13,1~; 33-33,1~; 200-299!; 321-323!
This skips all not booked providers except 13_1, 33_0, and 33_1. Addi‐
tionally all providers with a pnum between 200 and 299 or 321 and 323
are skipped.
FILES
/etc/isdn/rate.conf
This file. RATECONF may be used to specify an alternative rate
and provider configuration file.
/usr/lib64/isdn/rate-CC.dat
The rate-file for your country. Replace CC with your two letter
country code, e.g. de for Germany. RATEFILE defines the rate-
file to use.
AUTHOR
Tobias Becker <tobiasb@isdn4linux.de>
SEE ALSOisdnlog(8)rate-files(5)isdn.conf(5)ISDN 4 Linux 3.9 2005/02/23 rate.conf(5)
