Scanning options. These determine how and where the scanner looks for infected files.
Response options. These determine how the scanner responds to any infected files.
General options. These determine how the scanner reports its scanning activities.
Each group of options appears in its own table with a full description of its function.
Getting started
Once the software is installed and operating successfully, you run it by typing a command at the prompt in the Terminal window.
To access the Terminal window:
Click on the 'GO' Menu Option.
Select Applications from the menu.
Open the Utilities Folder.
Double-click the Application 'Terminal'.
You should now have a Terminal window open. You can drag Terminal into the dock for easy access.
Examples of how to use the software
In the Terminal window, you can type commands like those in the following examples. The command-line scanner is installed in the /usr/local/vscanx directory, and the following examples assume that this is your current directory.
The scanner runs quietly, that is, it displays no messages at all unless it detects a virus. Because of this, some command-line options are useful to have in every command. For example, with -v or --verbose the scanner displays the name of each file that it scans. Also, --summary gives a report which includes the total number of files scanned and cleaned.
Scanning the files in a folder
To scan all files within a folder, type this at the command prompt:
./vscanx -v --summary /folder-name
Scanning the entire contents of a folder
When the program scans a folder, it normally examines only the files, and not the contents of further folders within the folder. To scan everything (a recursive scan), type this at the command prompt:
./vscanx -r -v --summary /folder-name
Scanning your personal folder
To scan all files within a folder, type this at the command prompt:
./vscanx -v -r --summary /users/your-user-name
Producing a report of a scan operation
The summary of the scan operation can be redirected into a file, which you can view or print later. Type this at the command prompt:
./vscanx /usr/bin -v -r --summary > report.txt /folder-name
Measuring the time of a scan operation
To measure the time taken for a scan operation, type this at the command prompt:
/usr/bin/time ./vscanx -v -r --summary /folder-name
Displaying version information
To display the version of this scanner or to see which engine and DATs are currently used, type this at the command prompt:
./vscanx --version
Scanning with maximum security
For maximum security, you can scan inside compressed files, and apply heuristic analysis - a process that detects unknown viruses by analyzing files for possible virus-like characteristics. The scan time takes longer than a normal scan.
To scan all files within a folder with maximum security, type this at the command prompt.
./vscanx -v -r --secure --summary /folder name
This information and more can be found at http://virexhelp.com/