rclone(1)
Rclone is a command-line program to sync files and directories to and from cloud storage services.
Synopsis
rclone [OPTIONS] COMMAND [COMMAND OPTIONS] [ARGUMENTS]Description
Rclone is a powerful tool for managing files across multiple cloud storage backends including AWS S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Azure Blob Storage, and many others. It supports syncing, copying, moving, and deleting files with advanced filtering and transformation options.
Rclone operates on "remotes" — named configurations for cloud storage services that you set up once and reuse. Commands like sync, copy, and move work with local directories or between remotes. It handles large files efficiently, supports bandwidth limiting, and provides checksums for data integrity.
Common options
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
--config STRING | Config file location (default: ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf) |
-v, --verbose | Print verbose log output |
--dry-run | Do a trial run with no permanent changes (show what would happen) |
--progress | Show progress during transfer |
-P, --stats-one-line | Show progress in concise one-line format |
--bwlimit RATE | Bandwidth limit in kBytes/s (e.g., 10M for 10 MB/s) |
--transfers INT | Number of file transfers to run in parallel (default: 4) |
--checkers INT | Number of checkers to run in parallel (default: 8) |
--delete-during | Delete files on destination during transfer (sync only) |
--exclude PATTERN | Exclude files matching pattern |
--include PATTERN | Include files matching pattern (filter defaults to exclude) |
--fast-list | Use fast recursive listing when available (faster but uses more memory) |
Examples
Interactive setup wizard to add a new cloud storage remote (e.g., Google Drive, S3)
rclone configPreview what would be synced from local ~/Documents to Google Drive without making changes
rclone sync ~/Documents gdrive:MyFolder --dry-runCopy files from AWS S3 bucket to local directory with 8 parallel transfers and progress display
rclone copy s3:mybucket/path ~/local/backup --progress --transfers 8Keep Dropbox in sync with local folder, deleting remote files not in local, excluding .tmp files
rclone sync ~/folder dropbox: --delete-during --exclude '*.tmp'Move files to Backblaze B2 with 5 MB/s bandwidth limit
rclone move ~/completed b2:archive --bwlimit 5MList files on Google Drive up to 2 directory levels deep
rclone ls gdrive: --max-depth 2Compare files between two S3 buckets and report differences
rclone check s3:bucket1 s3:bucket2Mount Google Drive as a local filesystem at ~/drive (background process)
rclone mount gdrive: ~/drive &