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Hippie
Asked: 2012-03-19 06:49:59 +0800 CST

How to update ClamAV definitions database?

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How can I update Clam Antivirus via the terminal?

I already have installed clamav, but I want to know how can I update the virus database.

updates antivirus clamav

5 Answers

  1. To update the ClamAV database do sudo freshclam.

    NAME
       freshclam - update virus databases

SYNOPSIS
       freshclam [options]

DESCRIPTION
       freshclam is a virus database update tool for ClamAV.

    For offline update, you can also directly download virus definition from database: main, daily and then put them into /var/lib/clamav (remove old files).

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  2. Run sudo apt-get install clamav.

    Once ClamAv is installed you can set up a script for right click virus scanning in Nautilus.

    To update the virus database, open a terminal and enter the following command:

    sudo freshclam

    To automate this update you can set up a cron job. I'll show how to update the virus database every day at 8:57 AM. First, open the terminal and su to root.

    sudo su

    Now you need to modify the crontab for the root user.

    crontab -e

    This opens the root crontab file in the nano text editor. Add the following line 

    57 08 * * * freshclam

    to the crontab and then hit Ctrl+X to exit. Answer yes when prompted to save the file.

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  3. The right way to go is to edit freshclam.conf and add the number of dayly Checks you want

    vim /etc/clamav/freshclam.conf
Checks 24
##Notify clamd to reload it self
NotifyClamd /etc/clamav/clamd.conf
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  4. How to update clamtk (all steps) / clamav (steps 1-3)

    NOTE: Read each line before you willy nilly start typing things in Terminal to understand what you are doing to the system.

    1. Remove potentially bad AV installations:

      sudo apt-get remove clamav clamtk freshclam
sudo apt-get autoremove

    2. Reinstall AV

      sudo apt-get install clamav -y      # *(Terminal Version)*
sudo apt-get install clamtk -y      # *(GUI version)*

    3. Update AV Database

      sudo freshclam                    # *(takes ~30 minutes to download definitions)*

    4. Configure AV & Scan: This example uses only clamtk

      clamtk                           # (Opens GUI)*

      toggle all options beneath settings tab "Network"

      1. toggle "proxy" and type http://127.0.0.1
      2. toggle / reselect "No Proxy" (to gray out #1 above)

      "Update Assistant"

      1. toggle "manual" update option and click apply and "back"
      2. toggle "automatic" update option and click apply and "back". You should now see updated definition count

      "Scan a Directory"

      1. toggle desired directory you want scanned. For system scan, I toggled the entire system (not just /root or /usr).
      2. Click scan and a progress box will appear.

    Final Note: typing the phrase clamav --help gives some hints. -y is the same thing as saying yes to installing all dependencies for package. If -y causes issues then exclude and manually press y key when prompted.

    This is what I had to do to get clam working, perhaps a glitch for both clamtk and clamav (problem with both). Hope this helps someone else!

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  5. in China, the great firewall blocks, so can use only the download files. you can try setting the sever to cn in the freshclam.conf file, but the update will take days. direct download works to get the definitions.

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