Bowie Bailey wrote:
Robert Wyatt wrote:
Bowie Bailey wrote:
I think there is a bit of confusion here between the "SelfCheck" setting
in clamd.conf and the "Checks" setting in freshclam.conf.
I do see his point with the man page documentation for clamd.conf:
SelfCheck NUMBER
Perform a database check.
Default: 1800
So what does the number mean? The man page doesn't say. You have to
read the conf file to get an explanation:
# Perform internal sanity check (database integrity and freshness).
# Default: 1800 (30 min)
SelfCheck 1200
The man page needs to be updated to define the units for the "SelfCheck"
setting.
In trying to get freshclam to run automatically, I believe that I
discovered that this database check in clamd.conf actually checks for
updates. While I'm not 100% sure, I think that this setting either
invokes freshclam or it runs an equivalent command. Other users here
should be able to confirm whether I'm on the right track.
No, the database check in clamd.conf only checks the current database.
It checks to see if the database has been updated (by freshclam, or
otherwise). If there is an updated database, it will check to make sure
it is not corrupted and then load it.
To update the database, you either need to call freshclam from cron on a
regular basis or start freshclam as a daemon and use the "Checks"
setting to configure how often it checks for updates.
FWIW, on another machine I did set up (either through cron or
daemonic, not sure which) freshclam to run periodically. My
recollection is that you need to make sure that the database is owned
by the same user that runs this job. In other words, cron or daemonic
runs freshclam as admin, but the database may be owned by clamav--your
log files would indicate if there is a problem updating or accessing
the database. The simpler solution, in my experience, is to have clamd
update the database periodically, because it runs the update as the
"right" user by default. Here again, verification from other users
would be in order, so please chime in if you have better information.
No, clamd has no capability to download database updates -- that is
freshclam's job. You just need to make sure freshclam runs as the right
user so that it has permissions to replace the database when there is an
update. This should be fairly straightforward and once you get it
right, you can forget about it and just let it run.
Thanks for the clarification Bowie. I guess the "set it and forget it"
functionality has wound up meaning that I really have forgotten! :-)
--Robert
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