Contents->Updating The Virus Database

  1. Viewing
  2. Updating

See also; Clam AntiVirus User Manual


Viewing

To view the current Virus Database set by the Virus Database Location click on the Database tab or go to View->Database Page. You should then see the Database Page (shown below).

Database Page
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Updating

It is important to have an up to date Virus Database since new viruses are often discovered and reported on a daily basis.

AVScan features "one-click" updating of the Virus Database via the Internet using the virus database update program called freshclam (part of the Clam AntiVirus package).

Before updating, check if your system already has freshclam set up for auto-updating.

If you see freshclam already running then chances are it is set to automatically update the Virus Database and you do not need to manually update it.

If you are running AVScan as a non-root user then you need to perform the following steps to set up freshclam to update the Virus Database as any user:

  1. su
  2. (enter password)
  3. chmod +s /usr/bin/freshclam
  4. chown clamav.clamav /usr/bin/freshclam
  5. chown -R clamav.clamav /usr/share/clamav
  6. exit

If the above operations were performed successfully then from this point on you can run AVScan as any user and go to View->Database Page and click on Update or go to Database->Update From Internet. AVScan will then call freshclam and instruct it to download the latest version of the Virus Database from the Virus Database mirror site specified by its configuration.

If you have never updated before or are getting errors then you may need to edit freshclam's configuration file, found in one of the following locations:

freshclam requires its DatabaseMirror parameter set in freshclam.conf in order to run. This value is not set automatically when you install ClamAV so you may need to edit freshclam.conf and set it:

Example, if your site is in the United States then you would define in freshclam.conf:


# Use DNS to verify the virus database version.
#
# Freshclam uses DNS TXT records to verify database and software
# versions. With this directive you can change the database
# verification.
#
DNSDatabaseInfo current.cvd.clamav.net

# Virus Database mirror site
#
# See http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/ for a list.
#
# There is no default value for this parameter, not specifying this
# value will cause freshclam to not function
#
DatabaseMirror db.us.clamav.net
#
# Fallback Virus Database mirror site in case the above mirror site is
# not working.
#
DatabaseMirror database.clamav.ne

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