Set up ClamAV for macOS/OSX#2 : Clamd

After getting many requests to write a followup to the first clamav OSX article I try to compose here what you can do: Steven González Lugo, Ian Sowinski, jason musk

1. Install clamav and update it’s database to make a simple scan.
2. Copy /usr/local/etc/ clamd.conf.sample to clamd.conf
3. Edit clamd.conf and comment “Example” using “# Example”
4. Also in clamd.conf comment “LocalSocket /tmp/clamd.socket” in so it’s using this socket
5. Call clamd on your terminal. Run ps aux | grep clamd to see that it’s actually running in the background.

You should also add a cron job that updates your database regularly using the command freshclam.

Important note:

clamd doesn’t scan anything by it self

Other programs have to connect to it to give it data, and then it will scan this data and return the result. It’s not like an out of the box virus scanner.