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Command line scanner

ESET Endpoint Security's antivirus module can be launched via the command line – manually (with the “ecls” command) or with a batch (“bat”) file.

ESET Command-line scanner usage:

ecls [OPTIONS..] FILES..

The following parameters and switches can be used while running the on-demand scanner from the command line:

Options

/base-dir=FOLDER	load modules from FOLDER
/quar-dir=FOLDER	quarantine FOLDER
/exclude=MASK	exclude files matching MASK from scanning
/subdir	scan subfolders (default)
/no-subdir	do not scan subfolders
/max-subdir-level=LEVEL	maximum sub-level of folders within folders to scan
/symlink	follow symbolic links (default)
/no-symlink	skip symbolic links
/ads	scan ADS (default)
/no-ads	do not scan ADS
/log-file=FILE	log output to FILE
/log-rewrite	overwrite output file (default – append)
/log-console	log output to console (default)
/no-log-console	do not log output to console
/log-all	also log clean files
/no-log-all	do not log clean files (default)
/aind	show activity indicator
/auto	scan and automatically clean all local disks

Scanner options

/files	scan files (default)
/no-files	do not scan files
/memory	scan memory
/boots	scan boot sectors
/no-boots	do not scan boot sectors (default)
/arch	scan archives (default)
/no-arch	do not scan archives
/max-obj-size=SIZE	only scan files smaller than SIZE megabytes (default 0 = unlimited)
/max-arch-level=LEVEL	maximum sub-level of archives within archives (nested archives) to scan
/scan-timeout=LIMIT	scan archives for LIMIT seconds at maximum
/max-arch-size=SIZE	only scan the files in an archive if they are smaller than SIZE (default 0 = unlimited)
/max-sfx-size=SIZE	only scan the files in a self-extracting archive if they are smaller than SIZE megabytes (default 0 = unlimited)
/mail	scan email files (default)
/no-mail	do not scan email files
/mailbox	scan mailboxes (default)
/no-mailbox	do not scan mailboxes
/sfx	scan self-extracting archives (default)
/no-sfx	do not scan self-extracting archives
/rtp	scan runtime packers (default)
/no-rtp	do not scan runtime packers
/unsafe	scan for potentially unsafe applications
/no-unsafe	do not scan for potentially unsafe applications (default)
/unwanted	scan for potentially unwanted applications
/no-unwanted	do not scan for potentially unwanted applications (default)
/suspicious	scan for suspicious applications (default)
/no-suspicious	do not scan for suspicious applications
/pattern	use signatures (default)
/no-pattern	do not use signatures
/heur	enable heuristics (default)
/no-heur	disable heuristics
/adv-heur	enable Advanced heuristics (default)
/no-adv-heur	disable Advanced heuristics
/ext-exclude=EXTENSIONS	exclude file EXTENSIONS delimited by colon from scanning
/clean-mode=MODE	use cleaning MODE for infected objects The following options are available: none (default) – No automatic cleaning will occur. standard – ecls.exe will attempt to automatically clean or delete infected files. strict – ecls.exe will attempt to automatically clean or delete infected files without user intervention (you will not be prompted before files are deleted). rigorous – ecls.exe will delete files without attempting to clean regardless of what the file is. delete – ecls.exe will delete files without attempting to clean, but will refrain from deleting sensitive files such as Windows system files.
/quarantine	copy infected files (if cleaned) to Quarantine (supplements the action carried out while cleaning)
/no-quarantine	do not copy infected files to Quarantine

General options

/help	show help and quit
/version	show version information and quit
/preserve-time	preserve last access timestamp

Exit codes

0	no threat found
1	threat found and cleaned
10	some files could not be scanned (may be threats)
50	threat found
100	error

Exit codes greater than 100 mean that the file was not scanned and thus can be infected.

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