Keywords: clamdoc

## Obtain Latest ClamAV anti-virus signature databases

Before you can run ClamAV in daemon mode (clamd), 'clamdscan', or 'clamscan' which is ClamAV's command line virus scanner, you must have ClamAV Virus Database (.cvd) file(s) installed in the appropriate location on your system. The default location for these database files are /usr/local/share/clamav (in Linux/Unix).
Here is a listing of currently available ClamAV Virus Database Files:

- bytecode.cvd (signatures to detect bytecode in files)
- main.cvd (main ClamAV virus database file)
- daily.cvd (daily update file for ClamAV virus databases)
- safebrowsing.cvd (virus signatures for safe browsing)

These files can be downloaded via HTTP from the main ClamAV website or via the 'freshclam' utility on a periodic basis. Using 'freshclam' is the preferred method of keeping the ClamAV virus database files up to date without manual intervention (see section for information on how to configure 'freshclam' for automatic updating and section for additional details on freshclam).