ClamTk

Computer antivirus software for Linux

ClamTk is a free software graphical interface for the ClamAV command line antivirus software program, for Linux desktop users. It provides both on demand and scheduled scanning. The project was started by Dave Mauroni in February 2004. Since April 2024 the program is no longer maintained. ClamTk was originally written using the Tk widget toolkit, for which it is named, but it was later re written in Perl, using the GTK toolkit. The interface has evolved considerably over time and recent versions are quite different than early releases, adding features and changing the interface presentation. It is dual licensed under the GNU General Public License version 1 or later, and the Artistic License.

The ClamTk interface allows scanning of single files or directories. It can be configured for recursive scans, scanning all sub directories, for whitelists, to scan for potentially unwanted applications (PUAs), to exclude hidden files, or large files over 20 MB. In 2017 GHacks reviewer Mike Turcotte McCusker noted the high rate of false positives that the PUA inclusive scans return. The application interfaces with thunar sendto clamtk, nemo sendto clamtk, clamtk gnome and clamtk kde, each of which provide context menu functionality for the associated file managers, Thunar, Nemo, GNOME Files and Dolphin, allowing users to directly send files to ClamTk for scanning.

ClamTk has been included in the repositories of many Linux distributions, including ALT Linux, Arch Linux, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Linux Mint, Mandriva, openSUSE, PCLinuxOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, as well as FreeBSD. Most users install ClamTk from the repositories of the Linux distribution that they are using, but the application's website also provides downloads for the latest release versions, in the form of rpm and deb files.

A 2014 review of ClamTk 5.0.7 by Silviu Stahie of Softpedia recommended the application as a means of getting ClamAV functionality in an easy to use graphical interface. He wrote, "basically, all functions of ClamTK can be performed in a terminal with ClamAV. That would be fine if you had no desktop environment, like on a server, but there is no reason to use the terminal in a regular Linux distribution." A 2017 review in Linux and Ubuntu said, "ClamTK provides a very simple GUI that allows beginners who are not most comfortable to use CLI. Upon launching ClamTk, you will be presented with a clean GUI with 4 main sections." A review by Derrik Diener of Additive Tips in 2019 stated, "  if you like the features of the ClamAV tool, but dislike dealing with the command line, you’ll get the same useful features in a nice, easy to use interface  ClamTK takes all of the advanced ClamAV features from the command line and wraps it up in an incredibly simple user interface that the average Linux user can use."