I let virtualmin do an update on ClamAV and now I get this error.
ERROR: Parse error at line 8: Unknown option freshclam
ERROR: Can’t open/parse the config file /etc/freshclam.conf
not sure if I should update this or clamd.conf ?
You haven’t mentioned your OS or version, or the version of clamav (the package version, specifically, since this would be a packaging bug).
I suspect you have a third party repository configured, and you got a broken clamav package from it, rather than our package. But, I’m just wild-ass guessing, since I don’t have anything to go on.
Obviously the problem is in freshclam.conf, and never mentions clamd.conf (also note that Virtualmin sets up clamd-virtualmin.conf on systems where we provide the clamav packages, as per the recommendation of the clamav developers).
sorry Joe, I should have supplied.
installation using ‘install.sh’
so should be no other repositories as its all installed from this script.
there was a message which said that clamAV could be updated so I just pressed the install button. hwo can I tell what the last thing that was installed was?
virtualmin 3.67
Operating system
CentOS Linux 5.3
Perl version 5.008008
Path to Perl /usr/bin/perl
Postfix version 2.3.3
Mail injection command /usr/lib/sendmail -t
BIND version 9.3.4
Apache version 2.2.3
PHP version 5.1.6
Webalizer version 2.01-10
Logrotate version 3.7.4
MySQL version 5.0.45
ProFTPd version 1.30
SpamAssasssin version 3.2.5
ClamAV version 0.95.1
So, that’s weird. I’ve tested the update on my CentOS 5 machines with no problems.
What’s in freshclam.conf?
Example config file for freshclam
Please read the freshclam.conf(5) manual before editing this file.
Comment or remove the line below.
freshclam config
Path to the database directory.
WARNING: It must match clamd.conf’s directive!
Default: hardcoded (depends on installation options)
#DatabaseDirectory /var/lib/clamav
Path to the log file (make sure it has proper permissions)
Default: disabled
UpdateLogFile /var/log/freshclam.log
Maximum size of the log file.
Value of 0 disables the limit.
You may use ‘M’ or ‘m’ for megabytes (1M = 1m = 1048576 bytes)
and ‘K’ or ‘k’ for kilobytes (1K = 1k = 1024 bytes).
in bytes just don’t use modifiers.
Default: 1M
#LogFileMaxSize 2M
Log time with each message.
Default: no
#LogTime yes
Enable verbose logging.
Default: no
#LogVerbose yes
Use system logger (can work together with UpdateLogFile).
Default: no
#LogSyslog yes
Specify the type of syslog messages - please refer to ‘man syslog’
for facility names.
Default: LOG_LOCAL6
#LogFacility LOG_MAIL
This option allows you to save the process identifier of the daemon
Default: disabled
#PidFile /var/run/freshclam.pid
By default when started freshclam drops privileges and switches to the
"clamav" user. This directive allows you to change the database owner.
Default: clamav (may depend on installation options)
#DatabaseOwner clamav
Initialize supplementary group access (freshclam must be started by root).
Default: no
#AllowSupplementaryGroups yes
Use DNS to verify virus database version. Freshclam uses DNS TXT records
to verify database and software versions. With this directive you can change
the database verification domain.
WARNING: Do not touch it unless you’re configuring freshclam to use your
own database verification domain.
Default: current.cvd.clamav.net
#DNSDatabaseInfo current.cvd.clamav.net
Uncomment the following line and replace XY with your country
code. See http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm for the full list.
#DatabaseMirror db.XY.clamav.net
database.clamav.net is a round-robin record which points to our most
reliable mirrors. It’s used as a fall back in case db.XY.clamav.net is
not working. DO NOT TOUCH the following line unless you know what you
are doing.
DatabaseMirror database.clamav.net
How many attempts to make before giving up.
Default: 3 (per mirror)
#MaxAttempts 5
With this option you can control scripted updates. It’s highly recommended
to keep it enabled.
Default: yes
#ScriptedUpdates yes
By default freshclam will keep the local databases (.cld) uncompressed 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
#CompressLocalDatabase no
Number of database checks per day.
Default: 12 (every two hours)
#Checks 24
Proxy settings
Default: disabled
#HTTPProxyServer myproxy.com
#HTTPProxyPort 1234
#HTTPProxyUsername myusername
#HTTPProxyPassword mypass
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
#HTTPUserAgent SomeUserAgentIdString
Use aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd as client address for downloading databases. Useful for
multi-homed systems.
Default: Use OS’es default outgoing IP address.
#LocalIPAddress aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd
Send the RELOAD command to clamd.
Default: no
#NotifyClamd /path/to/clamd.conf
Run command after successful database update.
Default: disabled
#OnUpdateExecute command
Run command when database update process fails.
Default: disabled
#OnErrorExecute command
Run command when freshclam reports outdated version.
In the command string %v will be replaced by the new version number.
Default: disabled
#OnOutdatedExecute command
Don’t fork into background.
Default: no
#Foreground yes
Enable debug messages in libclamav.
Default: no
#Debug yes
Timeout in seconds when connecting to database server.
Default: 30
#ConnectTimeout 60
Timeout in seconds when reading from database server.
Default: 30
#ReceiveTimeout 60
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.
This feature requires LogTime and LogFile to be enabled in clamd.conf.
Default: no
#SubmitDetectionStats /path/to/clamd.conf
Country of origin of malware/detection statistics (for statistical
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 location, 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
#DetectionStatsCountry country-code
This option enables support for Google Safe Browsing. When activated 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
database and its updates but all the contents are provided under Google’s
terms of use. See http://code.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=70015
and http://safebrowsing.clamav.net for more information.
Default: disabled
#SafeBrowsing yes
Where did this come from?
freshclam config
That’s definitely not in our package.
It shouldn’t be there at all. It ships from ClamAV.net with “Example” on that line…which has to be deleted or commented out. We comment it out during packaging…so it becomes “# Example”.
Wherever it came from, you need to get rid of it.
no idea where it come from either. have not tried to install any packages etc.
have deleted the file.
thanks.
have deleted the file.
I hope you meant "deleted the line". 
ah
easily restored :o)