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Level 2

285 points

macOS Server 5.6: freshclam taking for ever at high CPU

After my adventure where APFS, SpamAssassin and TimeMachine conspired to kill my macOS Server (See https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250210370?page=1 with solution) I have now my server up and running again.

That is, starting the mail server means that clamav uses freshclam to update the virus definitions. And that takes for ever and does not seem to finish. Also, even when told so, freshclam does not give debugging info that tells me what it is actually doing.

I stopped the mail server and ran (as user root):

sudo -u _clamav /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/bin/freshclam --show-progress --debug

But that doesn't tell me anything. So, I started the mail server again and it is back to updating freshclam.

This is an older Mac mini, how long should freshclam take?

Posted on Mar 6, 2019 7:05 AM

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Gerben Wierda Author

Level 2

285 points

Posted on Mar 6, 2019 9:04 AM

It took an hour (with everything else not taking up a lot of CPU):

Wed Mar  6 16:02:37 2019 -> Downloading daily-25380.cdiff [100%]
Wed Mar  6 16:59:30 2019 -> cdiff_apply: Parsed 771787 lines and executed 771787 commands
Wed Mar  6 16:59:31 2019 -> Loading signatures from daily.cld
Wed Mar  6 16:59:43 2019 -> Properly loaded 1502271 signatures from new daily.cld
Wed Mar  6 16:59:43 2019 -> daily.cld updated (version: 25380, sigs: 1503528, f-level: 63, builder: raynman)
Wed Mar  6 16:59:43 2019 -> Querying daily.25380.82.1.0.6810DA54.ping.clamav.net
Wed Mar  6 16:59:44 2019 -> bytecode.cvd version from DNS: 328
Wed Mar  6 16:59:44 2019 -> bytecode.cld is up to date (version: 328, sigs: 94, f-level: 63, builder: neo)
Wed Mar  6 17:00:08 2019 -> Database updated (6069871 signatures) from database.clamav.net (IP: 104.16.218.84)

Between the first two lines of the log it was busy at 100% CPU for 57 minutes.

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Best reply

Gerben Wierda Author

Level 2

285 points

Mar 6, 2019 9:04 AM in response to Gerben Wierda

It took an hour (with everything else not taking up a lot of CPU):

Wed Mar  6 16:02:37 2019 -> Downloading daily-25380.cdiff [100%]
Wed Mar  6 16:59:30 2019 -> cdiff_apply: Parsed 771787 lines and executed 771787 commands
Wed Mar  6 16:59:31 2019 -> Loading signatures from daily.cld
Wed Mar  6 16:59:43 2019 -> Properly loaded 1502271 signatures from new daily.cld
Wed Mar  6 16:59:43 2019 -> daily.cld updated (version: 25380, sigs: 1503528, f-level: 63, builder: raynman)
Wed Mar  6 16:59:43 2019 -> Querying daily.25380.82.1.0.6810DA54.ping.clamav.net
Wed Mar  6 16:59:44 2019 -> bytecode.cvd version from DNS: 328
Wed Mar  6 16:59:44 2019 -> bytecode.cld is up to date (version: 328, sigs: 94, f-level: 63, builder: neo)
Wed Mar  6 17:00:08 2019 -> Database updated (6069871 signatures) from database.clamav.net (IP: 104.16.218.84)

Between the first two lines of the log it was busy at 100% CPU for 57 minutes.

macOS Server 5.6: freshclam taking for ever at high CPU