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freshclam is a default database updater for Clam AntiVirus.
It may work in two modes:
- interactively - from command line, verbosly
- daemon - alone, silently
When started by a superuser it (by default) drops privileges and switches
to the clamav user. freshclam uses the
database.clamav.net round-robin DNS which automatically selects
a database mirror2.8. freshclam is an advanced tool: supports
proxy servers (with authentication), digital signature verification and
various error scenarious. 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 is 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 (usually
freshclam.conf) and configure the UpdateLogFile directive
to point the created log file (it's highly recommended). Optionally you
may force the log file path with -l. Finally, to run freshclam
in a 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:
0 * * * * /usr/local/bin/freshclam --quiet
to check for a new database every hour. Proxy settings are only
configurable via the configuration file (so you can setup proper permissions
to protect your proxy password):
HTTPProxyServer myproxyserver.com
HTTPProxyPort 1234
HTTPProxyUsername myusername
HTTPProxyPassword mypass
Next: Database mirrors
Up: Installation
Previous: Testing
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Tomasz Kojm
2004-02-11