dutchcoders/transfer.sh · error

clamav-host not set

Error message

clamav-host not set

What it means

This error is thrown by the transfer.sh CLI at startup when the --perform-clamav-prescan flag is enabled but no --clamav-host was provided. The ClamAV prescan feature requires a reachable ClamAV (clamd) instance, and the host flag is the only way to locate it, so the command refuses to configure the server with a prescan option pointing nowhere. It is a fail-fast validation in the serve/start command rather than a runtime failure.

Source

Thrown at cmd/cmd.go:414

		} else {
			options = append(options, server.Logger(logger))
		}

		if v := c.String("lets-encrypt-hosts"); v != "" {
			options = append(options, server.UseLetsEncrypt(strings.Split(v, ",")))
		}

		if v := c.String("virustotal-key"); v != "" {
			options = append(options, server.VirustotalKey(v))
		}

		if v := c.String("clamav-host"); v != "" {
			options = append(options, server.ClamavHost(v))
		}

		if v := c.Bool("perform-clamav-prescan"); v {
			if c.String("clamav-host") == "" {
				return errors.New("clamav-host not set")
			}

			options = append(options, server.PerformClamavPrescan(v))
		}

		if v := c.Int64("max-upload-size"); v > 0 {
			options = append(options, server.MaxUploadSize(v))
		}

		if v := c.Int("rate-limit"); v > 0 {
			options = append(options, server.RateLimit(v))
		}

		v := c.Int("random-token-length")
		options = append(options, server.RandomTokenLength(v))

		purgeDays := c.Int("purge-days")
		purgeInterval := c.Int("purge-interval")

View on GitHub (pinned to c37bfd9579)

Solutions

1. Pass --clamav-host pointing at your clamd instance, e.g. --clamav-host clamav.example.com:3310
2. If prescanning is not actually required, remove/disable the --perform-clamav-prescan flag
3. Set both flags together in your deployment config so one cannot be enabled without the other
4. Verify the flag is actually reaching the process (print args, check the Docker/systemd command line for quoting issues that empty the value)

Example fix

// before
transfer.sh --perform-clamav-prescan
// after
transfer.sh --perform-clamav-prescan --clamav-host clamav.internal:3310

// shell pre-flight before launching the server
if [ "$ENABLE_CLAMAV" = "true" ] && [ -z "$CLAMAV_HOST" ]; then
  echo "--perform-clamav-prescan requires --clamav-host" >&2; exit 1
fi

// Go: treat RunE's returned error as fatal config feedback
if err := cmd.Root.Execute(); err != nil {
  if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "clamav-host not set") {
    log.Fatalf("config error: enable clamav prescan only with --clamav-host")
  }
  os.Exit(1)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running the server with --perform-clamav-prescan (or the equivalent bool flag set to true) while --clamav-host is empty — e.g. omitting the flag, relying on an env var that the CLI does not read, or a flag alias typo like --clamav-host= without a value.

Common situations: Deploying transfer.sh behind Docker or systemd where only the prescan toggle was copied from a template but the ClamAV host line was dropped; enabling AV scanning in staging where clamd runs on a different host whose address was never wired into the flags; upgrading a config file that predates the clamav options.

Understand the failure class

Background: "--flag is required" and "must specify" CLI errors: how missing-required-flag validation works and how to fix it — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• access-key not set.
• secret-key not set.
• bucket not set.
• gdrive-client-json-filepath not set.
• gdrive-local-config-path not set.

AI-assisted analysis of dutchcoders/transfer.sh@c37bfd9579 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ae5066e7ade60a92. Report an issue: GitHub.