freshclam.conf(5) Clam AntiVirus freshclam.conf(5)NAMEfreshclam.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 configura‐
tion 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 sys‐
log' 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 con‐
figure 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 recom‐
mended 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) uncom‐
pressed 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
DatabaseCustomURL STR
With this option you can provide custom sources (http:// or
file://) for database files. This option can be used multiple
times.
Default: no custom URLs
PrivateMirror STR
This option allows you to easily point freshclam to private mir‐
rors. If PrivateMirror is set, freshclam does not attempt to use
DNS to determine whether its databases are out-of-date, instead
it will use the If-Modified-Since request or directly check the
headers of the remote database files. For each database, fresh‐
clam first attempts to download the CLD file. If that fails, it
tries to download the CVD file. This option overrides
DatabaseMirror, DNSDatabaseInfo and ScriptedUpdates. It can be
used multiple times to provide fall-back mirrors.
Default: disabled
HTTPProxyServer STR, HTTPProxyPort NUMBER
Use given proxy server and TCP port for database downloads.
HTTPProxyPort defaults to 8080.
HTTPProxyUsername STR,HTTPProxyPassword STRING
Proxy usage is authenticated through given username and pass‐
word.
Default: no proxy authentication
HTTPUserAgent STRING
If your servers are behind a firewall/proxy which applies User-
Agent 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 down‐
load has occurred. The path for clamd.conf file must be pro‐
vided.
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 num‐
ber.
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. Freshclam will connect to clamd in
order to get the recent statistics. The path for clamd.conf file
must be provided.
Default: disabled
DetectionStatsCountry STRING
Country of origin of malware/detection statistics (for statisti‐
cal 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 loca‐
tion, 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" ser‐
vice. 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 acti‐
vated 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 data‐
base and its updates but all the contents are provided under
Google's terms of use. See http://code.google.com/sup‐
port/bin/answer.py?answer=70015 and http://safebrowsing.cla‐
mav.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/freshclam.conf
AUTHOR
Thomas Lamy <thomas.lamy@netwake.de>, Tomasz Kojm <tkojm@clamav.net>
SEE ALSOfreshclam(1), clamd.conf(5), clamd(8), clamscan(1)ClamAV 0.98.1 February 12, 2007 freshclam.conf(5)
