[clamav-users] freshclam vs sudo freshclam

Tue Aug 21 18:27:12 UTC 2018

Woah, I need to proof-read my emails better.  I meant to say, "You shouldn't need 'sudo' if your user can write to the directory.

Micah Snyder
ClamAV Development
Talos
Cisco Systems, Inc.

On Aug 21, 2018, at 12:45 PM, Micah Snyder (micasnyd) <micasnyd at cisco.com<mailto:micasnyd at cisco.com>> wrote:

Hi Mike,

It depends on whether what your clamav database directory's user permissions are set to.  You shouldn't need freshclam if your user can write to the directory.

At this time, ClamAV relies on the installer (or sys admin) to configure the permissions.
If you install from source, the default install path places the database in /usr/local/share/clamav.  On my mac, it doesn't require 'sudo' to write to that directory.  If you installed from MacPorts or Homebrew, the installation path is different.

For homebrew it seems to use the Cellar location and also install symlinks in the default system locations (/usr/local/...):
/usr/local/Cellar/clamav/<version>/share/clamav
I guess MacPorts went with:
/opt/local/share/clamav)

On some systems, I believe they install to /usr/..., with the database then being in:
/usr/share/clamav.

I'm really not certain on the default permissions settings for each OS.  I guess the TL;DR is that it isn't consistent across every OS.  Sorry about the confusion.

Micah Snyder
ClamAV Development
Talos
Cisco Systems, Inc.

On Aug 20, 2018, at 9:31 PM, Michael Newman <mgnewman at mac.com<mailto:mgnewman at mac.com>> wrote:

Al Varnell wrote:

It appears to me from your other thread that you are using a Homebrew compiled installation. If that is the case, then you need to contact the package distributor (Homebrew) about any issues with their compilation.

Actually, it’s MacPorts, but, point taken. I’ve posted this inquiry on their mailing list.

But I really don't understand why you want to use sudo if everything is working for you. I personally never use sudo and never have seen a need to.

I "want" to use sudo because everything I’ve read says that’s what to do. For example, this in the GitHub FAQ:

After ClamAV is installed, then what? How do I update / refresh the virus database?

You will need to edit the freshclam.conf.example file located in /usr/local/etc. Once that is done, you will need to run a 'sudo freshclam' to download the signatures. You will need to run the command to update signatures often so that ClamAV has the most up to date signatures.

But, since you say that sudo is not necessary and because it doesn’t work, I won’t use it anymore.

Thanks for your advice.

Mike

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