If you are getting this error message, you probably haven’t updated default config file yet.

~# nano /etc/freshclam.conf

You need to comment the Example line – this is the usual mistake people forget, it’s rarely mentioned in google discussions ..

# Comment or remove the line below.
Example

change to

# Comment or remove the line below.
# Example

Next uncomment these 2 lines

DatabaseDirectory /var/lib/clamav
UpdateLogFile /var/log/freshclam.log

And run freshclam. That will update the database.

~# /usr/bin/freshclam
ClamAV update process started at Wed Jan 11 08:24:05 2017
main.cvd is up to date (version: 57, sigs: 4218790, f-level: 60, builder: amishhammer)
daily.cvd is up to date (version: 22872, sigs: 1320094, f-level: 63, builder: neo)
bytecode.cld is up to date (version: 285, sigs: 57, f-level: 63, builder: bbaker)

It’s best to set up cron job that runs this update for you, e.g.

15      1       *       *       *       /usr/bin/freshclam