clamd

About

python_clamd is a modernized Python wrapper for the ClamAV anti-virus engine.
It allows you to interact with a running clamd daemon on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

This project is a fork of python-clamd (last updated 2014), itself a fork of pyClamd v0.2.0 by Philippe Lagadec, which in turn extended pyClamd v0.1.1 by Alexandre Norman.

Why this fork?

• Updated for Python 3.12+ compatibility (replaced deprecated pkg_resources with importlib.metadata).
• Added type hints and annotations for better IDE/autocomplete and mypy support.
• Actively maintained with patches and modernization.

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Usage

Connect via Unix socket

import python_clamd
cd = python_clamd.ClamdUnixSocket()
cd.ping()         # 'PONG'
cd.version()      # 'ClamAV ...'
cd.reload()       # 'RELOADING'

Scan a file

open('/tmp/EICAR','wb').write(python_clamd.EICAR)
cd.scan('/tmp/EICAR')
# {'/tmp/EICAR': ('FOUND', 'Eicar-Test-Signature')}

Scan a stream

from io import BytesIO
cd.instream(BytesIO(python_clamd.EICAR))
# {'stream': ('FOUND', 'Eicar-Test-Signature')}

Installation

Python package

Coming soon via PyPI:

pip install python-clamd

ClamAV daemon

On Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install clamav-daemon clamav-freshclam clamav-unofficial-sigs
sudo freshclam
sudo service clamav-daemon start

Supported Versions

• Python 3.9 – 3.13
• Python 2.x (dropped)

License

Released under the LGPL license.

Contributing

PRs and issues are welcome. This fork exists to keep ClamAV bindings usable on modern Python.