freshclam.conf(5)
NAME
freshclam.conf - Configuration file for Clam AntiVirus database update
tool
DESCRIPTION
The file freshclam.conf configures the Clam AntiVirus Database Updater,
freshclam(1).
FILE FORMAT
The file consists of comments and options with arguments. Each line
which starts with a hash (#) symbol is ignored by the parser. Options
and arguments are case sensitive and of the form Option Argument. The
arguments are of the following types:
BOOL Boolean value (yes/no or true/false or 1/0).
STRING String without blank characters.
- SIZE Size in bytes. You can use 'M' or 'm' modifiers for megabytes
- and 'K' or 'k' for kilobytes.
- NUMBER Unsigned integer.
DIRECTIVES
When an option is not used (hashed or doesn't exist in the configuration file) freshclam takes a default action.
- Example
- If this option is set freshclam will not run.
- DatabaseOwner STRING
- When started by root, drop privileges to a specified user.
Default: - AllowSupplementaryGroups BOOL
- Initialize supplementary group access (freshclam must be started
by root).
Default: disabled - DatabaseDirectory STRING
- Path to a directory containing database files.
Default: /var/lib/clamav/ - Checks NUMBER
- Number of database checks per day.
Default: 12 - UpdateLogFile STRING
- Enable logging to a specified file. Highly recommended.
Default: disabled. - LogFileMaxSize SIZE
- Limit the size of the log file. The logger will be automatically
disabled if the file is greater than SIZE. Value of 0 disables
the limit.
Default: 1M - LogSyslog BOOL
- Enable logging to Syslog. May be used in combination with
UpdateLogFile.
Default: disabled. - LogFacility STRING
- Specify the type of syslog messages - please refer to 'man syslog' for facility names.
Default: LOG_LOCAL6 - PidFile STRING
- This option allows you to save the process identifier of the
daemon to a file specified in the argument.
Default: disabled - LogVerbose BOOL
- Enable verbose logging.
Default: disabled - DNSDatabaseInfo STRING
- This directive enables database and software version checks
through DNS TXT records.
Default: enabled, pointing to current.cvd.clamav.net - DatabaseMirror STRING
- Server name where database updates are downloaded from. In order
to download the database from the closest mirror you should configure freshclam to use db.xy.clamav.net where xy represents
your country code. If this option is given multiple times,
freshclam(1) tries them in the order given. It's strongly recommended that you use db.xy.clamav.net as the first mirror and
database.clamav.net as the second.
Default: database.clamav.net - MaxAttempts NUMBER
- How many attempts (per mirror) to make before giving up.
Default: 3 (per mirror) - ScriptedUpdates BOOL
- With this option you can control scripted updates. It's highly
recommended to keep it enabled.
Default: enabled - TestDatabases BOOL
- With this option enabled, freshclam will attempt to load new
databases into memory to make sure they are properly handled by
libclamav before replacing the old ones.
Default: enabled - CompressLocalDatabase BOOL
- By default freshclam will keep the local databases (.cld) uncompressed to make their handling faster. With this option you can
enable the compression; the change will take effect with the
next database update.
Default: no - HTTPProxyServer STR, HTTPProxyPort NUMBER
- Use given proxy server and TCP port for database downloads.
- HTTPProxyUsername STR,HTTPProxyPassword STRING
- Proxy usage is authenticated through given username and password.
Default: no proxy authentication - HTTPUserAgent STRING
- If your servers are behind a firewall/proxy which applies UserAgent filtering, you can use this option to force the use of a
different User-Agent header.
Default: clamav/version_number - LocalIPAddress IP
- Use IP as client address for downloading databases. Useful for
multi homed systems.
Default: Use OS'es default outgoing IP address. - NotifyClamd STRING
- Notify a running clamd(8) to reload its database after a download has occurred. The path for clamd.conf file must be provided.
Default: The default is to not notify clamd. See clamd.conf(5)'s option SelfCheck for how clamd(8) handles database updates in this case. - OnUpdateExecute STRING
- Execute this command after the database has been successfully
updated.
Default: disabled - OnOutdatedExecute STRING
- Execute this command when freshclam reports outdated version. In
the command string %v will be replaced by the new version number.
Default: disabled - OnErrorExecute STRING
- Execute this command after a database update has failed.
Default: disabled - ConnectTimeout NUMBER
- Timeout in seconds when connecting to database server.
Default: 10 - ReceiveTimeout NUMBER
- Timeout in seconds when reading from database server.
Default: 30 - SubmitDetectionStats STRING
- When enabled freshclam will submit statistics to the ClamAV
Project about the latest virus detections in your environment.
The ClamAV maintainers will then use this data to determine what
types of malware are the most detected in the field and in what
geographic area they are. This feature requires LogTime and LogFile to be enabled in clamd.conf. The path for clamd.conf file
must be provided.
Default: disabled - DetectionStatsCountry STRING
- Country of origin of malware/detection statistics (for statistical purposes only). The statistics collector at ClamAV.net will look up your IP address to determine the geographical origin of the malware reported by your installation. If this installation is mainly used to scan data which comes from a different location, please enable this option and enter a two-letter code (see http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/) of the country of origin. Default: disabled
- DetectionStatsHostID STRING
- This option enables support for our "Personal Statistics" service. When this option is enabled, the information on malware
detected by your clamd installation is made available to you
through our website. To get your HostID, log on
http://www.stats.clamav.net and add a new host to your host
list. Once you have the HostID, uncomment this option and paste
the HostID here. As soon as your freshclam starts submitting
information to our stats collecting service, you will be able to
view the statistics of this clamd installation by logging into
http://www.stats.clamav.net with the same credentials you used
to generate the HostID. For more information refer to:
http://www.clamav.net/support/faq/faq-cctts/. This feature
requires SubmitDetectionStats to be enabled.
Default: disabled - SafeBrowsing BOOL
- This option enables support for Google Safe Browsing. When activated for the first time, freshclam will download a new database
file (safebrowsing.cvd) which will be automatically loaded by
clamd and clamscan during the next reload, provided that the
heuristic phishing detection is turned on. This database
includes information about websites that may be phishing sites
or possible sources of malware. When using this option, it's
mandatory to run freshclam at least every 30 minutes. Freshclam
uses the ClamAV's mirror infrastructure to distribute the database and its updates but all the contents are provided under
Google's terms of use. See http://code.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=70015 and http://safebrowsing.clamav.net for more information.
Default: disabled - Bytecode BOOL
- This option enables downloading of bytecode.cvd, which includes
additional detection mechanisms and improvements to the ClamAV
engine.
Default: enabled
FILES
/etc/clamav/freshclam.conf
AUTHOR
Thomas Lamy <thomas.lamy@netwake.de>, Tomasz Kojm <tkojm@clamav.net>