Parameters and Switches

Example: “C:\Program files” /p /u=virus@avast.com –soundoff /v=”key kapt”

d:\path
This parameter specifies the drive and directory that should be tested. If the parameter is not given, the files in the root directory of the current drive are scanned. It is possible to specify more drives simultaneously.

d:\path\file
When the full pathname of a file is given, ashCmd only this one file is scanned. The file must exist!

/H or /?   (or –help)
Prints brief help and a list of possible switches.

/#   (or –remote)
Scans remote disks.

/*   (or –local)
Scans local hard disks.

/_   (or –console)
The application will be ready for STDIN/STDOUT. All the output will be redirected to the standard output (STDOUT). It means that the output can be processed using various UNIX-style command-line tools.

/A   (or –testall)
Tests all files.

/@=<task name>   (or –task)
Starts a particular avast! scan. All the other parameters are ignored. If the scan name contains any spaces, it must be enclosed in quotes.

/C   (or –testfull)
Switches on scanning of whole files. By default, only the important parts of the files are tested, which is much faster. When any virus is found, the program switches to scanning the whole files automatically.

/D (or –dontpanic)
Tells avast! that it should not switch to “panic mode” when an infected file is found. Panic mode means, the sensitivity is automatically increased to the maximum.

/E=<value> (or –heuristics)
Sets the heuristic sensitivity of the scan. The value can be in the range 0 – 100, where “0″ means disabled and “100″ is the maximum heuristic sensitivity.

/F=<value> (or –fileactions)
Tells avast! how to process infected files, e.g.

  • B = allow delayed actions (after reboot) for locked files.
  • P = if a file cannot be removed from an archive, try to remove the parent archive
  • S = do not remove associated auto-start references when removing a file
  • W = if an infected file is found inside an archive, apply the action to the whole archive, not just the infected file.

/G=<value> (or –checkgenuine)
This tells avast! to check the digital signatures of suspicious files and what to do if the signature is from a trusted source. The value can be “0″ (which means all files will be reported) or “1″ (to not report files with digital signatures from trusted publishers)

/I   (or –ignoretype)
Switches on searching for all viruses in all files (i.e. boot viruses will be looked for even in .exe files etc.).

/J   (or –paging)
Pages the lines if the program is not in STDOUT mode (i.e. stops after each full page of results).

/M   (or –boot)
Tests boot sectors and the operating memory.

/P   (or –continue)
This switch specifies that the program will run without any delays after checking the disk system areas and without waiting for user interaction when a virus is found. To check the result of the scan, you can use predefined return codes, or information stored in a report file. To specify an automatic action with the infected files, use /P=[1234], where 1 = delete file, 2 = move to Chest, 3 = repair, 4 = stop.

/R=[*] [file name]   (or –report)
This switch specifies that a text file will be created with a list of viruses found and a summary table (report file). If the file name is not given, ashCmd.rpt in the current directory is used for the output. When the switch /R is followed by the “*” character, all the scanned files will be written to the report file (even those where no virus was detected).

/S   (or –soundoff)
This switch turns off the virus sound alert. By default, any virus found is announced by a beep.

/U=<address>   (or –sendmessage)
If a virus is found, a warning message is sent to the given address.

/T=[JZIMXRSTGCBWOEQHFVKPY7D6U123AN]   (or –archivetype)
Specifies the type of archives to scan (J:ARJ, Z:ZIP, I:MIME, M:MAPI, X:Exec, R:RAR, S:Streams, T:TAR, G:GZ, C:CAB, B:BZIP2, W:WinExec, O:ZOO, E:ACE, Q:ARC, H:LHA, F:TNEF, V:CPIO, K:CHM, P:RPM, Y:ISO, 7:7ZIP, D:DBX, 6:SIS, U:OLE, 1:Installer, 2:Dropper, 3:Emulator, A:All, N:none).

/X=<value> (or –virustypes)
Sets specific malware types that should be detected (types not detected by default)

  • P = PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs)

Command line parameters