The use of 'DEBCONF_DEBUG='.*'' can be helpful here for debugging purpose. Simply need to set and export. And this link: https://wiki.debian.org/MaintainerScripts Following the appropriate workflow to understand what it is doing under the hood. As a debug exercise, one ca also add 'set -xv' in the clamav-daemon maintainer scripts to possibly isolate what is causing the loop in combination with the DEBCONF_DEBUG set. I actually took a few seconds to reproduce it inside a Xenial container and we can clearly see the loop in action: ...... debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate type) .. debconf (db passwords): cache miss on clamav-daemon/LogRotate debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate type) .. debconf (db passwords): cache miss on clamav-daemon/LogRotate debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (developer): --> 30 question skipped debconf (developer): <-- GO debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate value) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate value) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to setfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate value true) .. debconf (db configdb): passing to config .. debconf (developer): --> 0 ok debconf (developer): <-- INPUT low clamav-daemon/LogFile debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile type) .. debconf (db passwords): cache miss on clamav-daemon/LogFile debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile type) .. debconf (db passwords): cache miss on clamav-daemon/LogFile debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (developer): --> 30 question skipped debconf (developer): <-- GO debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile value) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile value) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to setfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile value /var/log/clamav/clamav.log) .. debconf (db configdb): passing to config .. debconf (developer): --> 0 ok debconf (developer): <-- METAGET clamav-daemon/LogFile value debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile value) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (developer): --> 0 /var/log/clamav/clamav.log debconf (developer): <-- INPUT low clamav-daemon/LogTime debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime type) .. debconf (db passwords): cache miss on clamav-daemon/LogTime debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime type) .. debconf (db passwords): cache miss on clamav-daemon/LogTime debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (developer): --> 30 question skipped debconf (developer): <-- GO debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime value) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime value) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to setfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime value true) .. debconf (db configdb): passing to config .. debconf (developer): --> 0 ok debconf (developer): <-- INPUT low clamav-daemon/LogRotate debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate type) .. debconf (db passwords): cache miss on clamav-daemon/LogRotate debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate type) .. debconf (db passwords): cache miss on clamav-daemon/LogRotate debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (developer): --> 30 question skipped debconf (developer): <-- GO debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate value) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate value) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to setfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate value true) .. debconf (db configdb): passing to config .. debconf (developer): --> 0 ok debconf (developer): <-- INPUT low clamav-daemon/LogFile debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile type) .. debconf (db passwords): cache miss on clamav-daemon/LogFile debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile type) .. debconf (db passwords): cache miss on clamav-daemon/LogFile debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (developer): --> 30 question skipped debconf (developer): <-- GO debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile value) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile value) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to setfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile value /var/log/clamav/clamav.log) .. debconf (db configdb): passing to config .. debconf (developer): --> 0 ok debconf (developer): <-- METAGET clamav-daemon/LogFile value debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile value) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (developer): --> 0 /var/log/clamav/clamav.log debconf (developer): <-- INPUT low clamav-daemon/LogTime debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime type) .. debconf (db passwords): cache miss on clamav-daemon/LogTime debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime type) .. debconf (db passwords): cache miss on clamav-daemon/LogTime debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime template) .. debconf (db configdb): getfield done by config debconf (developer): --> 30 question skipped ...... $ grep -i "trying to getfield" /tmp/deconfdebug.out | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn 108 debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogTime template) .. 108 debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogRotate template) .. 108 debconf (db configdb): trying to getfield(clamav-daemon/LogFile template) .. .....