clamscan

clamscan [options] [file|directory...]

clamscan is a standalone command-line virus scanner from the ClamAV antivirus suite. It scans files and directories for viruses, trojans, malware, and other threats using the ClamAV signature database.Each invocation loads the full virus database into memory, which makes it suitable for one-off scans but slower for repeated use. For high-volume or frequent scanning, the daemon-based clamdscan is preferred as it avoids the database reload overhead.clamscan supports recursive directory scanning, pattern-based file inclusion and exclusion, configurable size limits, and various actions for infected files including removal, quarantine (move), and copying. Scan results can be logged to a file for audit purposes.

-r, --recursive

Scan directories recursively

Only print infected files

Don't print clean files

Remove infected files (dangerous; disabled by default)

Move infected files to directory

Copy infected files to directory

Write scan report to file

Load virus signatures from file or directory

Skip files matching the regex pattern

Skip directories matching the regex

Only scan files matching the regex

Only enter directories matching the regex

Skip files larger than size

Maximum data scanned per container

Sound an audible alert on detection

Detect potentially unwanted applications

Only print error messages

Suppress the final scan summary

Verbose output

Print version information

Update signatures before scanning:

$ sudo freshclam

--remove is dangerous due to false positives. Use --move or --copy instead. Single-threaded by default. For multi-threaded scanning, use clamdscan with clamd daemon.

freshclam(1), clamdscan(1), clamd(8)