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freshclam is the default database updater for Clam AntiVirus.
It can work in two modes:
- interactive - from command line, verbosely
- daemon - alone, silently
When started by a superuser it drops privileges and switches
to the clamav user. freshclam uses the
database.clamav.net round-robin DNS which automatically selects
a database mirror9.1. freshclam is an advanced tool:
it supports database version verification through DNS, proxy servers (with
authentication), digital signatures and various error scenarios.
Quick test: run freshclam (as superuser) with no parameters
and check the output. If everything is OK you may create the log file in
/var/log (owned by clamav or another user freshclam will be
running as (--user):
# touch /var/log/clam-update.log
# chmod 600 /var/log/clam-update.log
# chown clamav /var/log/clam-update.log
Now you should edit the configuration file (freshclam.conf or
clamd.conf if they're merged) and configure the
UpdateLogFile directive to point to the created log file.
Finally, to run freshclam in the daemon mode, execute:
# freshclam -d
The other method is to use the cron daemon. You have to add the
following line to the crontab of the root or clamav users:
N * * * * /usr/local/bin/freshclam --quiet
to check for a new database every hour. N should be a
number between 3 and 57 of your choice. Please don't choose any multiple
of 10, because there are already too many clients using those time slots.
Proxy settings are only configurable via the configuration file and
freshclam will require strict permissions on the config file when
HTTPProxyPassword is enabled.
HTTPProxyServer myproxyserver.com
HTTPProxyPort 1234
HTTPProxyUsername myusername
HTTPProxyPassword mypass
Next: Closest mirrors
Up: Configuration
Previous: Testing
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Tomasz Kojm
2004-10-17