Re: "socket in use" error after installing official clamav package

Thanks Andrew, you're right, /var/run symlinks to /run. The matching inode should have been a hint for me.




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On Sunday, December 7th, 2025 at 5:54 PM, Andrew C Aitchison via clamav-users <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Sun, 7 Dec 2025, Alex via clamav-users wrote:
> 
> > Problem:
> > When clamav-daemon.service runs, it always encounters the error "LOCAL: Socket file /run/clamav/clamd.ctl is in use by another process." Then it immediately restarts, and fails again after the signatures have been loaded.
> > 
> > Background:
> > I needed to upgrade clamav to 1.4.3 using the official deb package from https://www.clamav.net/downloads
> > 
> > I made sure I uninstalled the old clamav v0.103 from my distro (Ubuntu 20.04).
> > I installed the clamav 1.4.3 .deb package and migrated clamd.conf and freshclam.conf
> > I've done some other stuff that I can't quite recall, like fixing the path to the databases that the services point to.
> > 
> > I have found two sockets, and I thin one is from my distro's old installation.
> > /var/run/clamav/clamd.ctl
> > 
> > /run/clamav/clamd.ctl
> 
> 
> 
> On recent Ubuntu (and presumably Debian)
> /var/run is a symlink to /var
> 
> > Since then I have updated clamd.conf to use LocalSocket /run/clamav/clamd.ctl instead of the one under /var
> > But strangely, every time I start clamav-daemon.socket it creates both socket files. They both have the same inode.
> > 
> > Is there any way I can resolve this socket conflict?
> > Where is the 2nd socket file coming from?
> 
> 
> --
> Andrew C. Aitchison Kendal, UK
> [email protected]
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