rclone

Nick Craig-Wood was inspired by rsync.{{Cite web |last=Craig-Wood |first=Nick |date=September 9, 2020 |title=Rclone --links gets tripped up by existing .rclonelink files |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/rclone-links-gets-tripped-up-by-existing-rclonelink-files/18959/6 |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=rclone forum |language=en-US |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112321/https://forum.rclone.org/t/rclone-links-gets-tripped-up-by-existing-rclonelink-files/18959/6 |url-status=live }} Concerns about the noise and power costs arising from home computer servers prompted him to embrace cloud storage and he began developing rclone as open source software in 2012 under the name swiftsync.{{Cite web |last=Craig-Wood |first=Nick |date=June 10, 2020 |title=Is rclone more efficient than an nfs mount |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/is-rclone-more-efficient-than-an-nfs-mount/16974/6 |access-date=July 29, 2020 |website=rclone forum |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112338/https://forum.rclone.org/t/is-rclone-more-efficient-than-an-nfs-mount/16974/6 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Meet The Team |url=https://www.memset.com/about/meet-the-team/ |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Memset |language=en |archive-date=March 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210323190826/https://www.memset.com/about/meet-the-team/ |url-status=live }}

Rclone was promoted to stable version 1.00 in July 2014.

In May 2017, Amazon Drive barred new users of rclone and other upload utilities, citing security concerns.{{Cite web |last=Claburn |first=Thomas |date=May 23, 2017 |title=Amazon Drive bans rclone storage client |url=https://www.theregister.com/2017/05/23/amazon_drive_bans_rclone_storage_client/ |website=The Register |access-date=July 30, 2020 |archive-date=August 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811131409/https://www.theregister.com/2017/05/23/amazon_drive_bans_rclone_storage_client/ |url-status=live }} Amazon Drive had been advertised as offering unlimited storage for £55 per year. Amazon's AWS S3 service continues to support new rclone users.

The original rclone logo was updated in September 2018.{{Cite web |date=September 30, 2018 |title=A New Logo for rclone |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/a-new-logo-for-rclone/7019 |website=rclone forum |access-date=July 30, 2020 |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112357/https://forum.rclone.org/t/a-new-logo-for-rclone/7019 |url-status=live }}

In March 2020, Nick Craig-Wood resigned from Memset Ltd, a cloud hosting company he founded, to focus on open source software.{{Cite web |last=Craig-Wood |first=Nick |date=May 27, 2020 |title=Rclone 1.52 release |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/rclone-1-52-release/16718 |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=rclone forum |language=en-US |archive-date=May 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506014024/https://forum.rclone.org/t/rclone-1-52-release/16718 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=MEMSET LTD - Officers (free information from Companies House) |url=https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/04504980/officers |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=beta.companieshouse.gov.uk |language=en |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112311/https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04504980/officers |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=April 3, 2020 |title=Trading Update, Iomart Group PLC, 2020-04-03 |url=https://aim-watch.com/trading-update-iomart-group-plc-2020-04-03/ |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=AIM-Watch |language=en-GB |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112421/https://aim-watch.com/trading-update-iomart-group-plc-2020-04-03/ |url-status=live }}

Amazon's AWS April 2020 public sector blog explained how the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center were using rclone in their Motuz tool to migrate very large biomedical research datasets in and out of AWS S3 object stores.{{Cite web |last=Rogers |first=Ray |date=April 16, 2020 |title=How Fred Hutch unlocks siloed data with AWS and open-source software |url=https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/publicsector/how-fred-hutch-unlocks-siloed-data-open-source-software/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200712063730/https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/publicsector/how-fred-hutch-unlocks-siloed-data-open-source-software/ |archive-date=July 12, 2020 |access-date=July 30, 2020 |publisher=Amazon Web Services}}

In November 2020, rclone was updated to correct a weakness in the way it generated passwords. Passwords for encrypted remotes can be generated randomly by rclone or supplied by the user. In all versions of rclone from 1.49.0 to 1.53.2 the seed value for generated passwords was based on the number of seconds elapsed in the day, and therefore not truly random. CVE-2020-28924 recommended users upgrade to the latest version of rclone and check the passwords protecting their encrypted remotes.{{Cite web |date=November 19, 2020 |title=CVE - CVE-2020-28924 |url=https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2020-28924 |access-date=2020-11-20 |website=cve.mitre.org |archive-date=November 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201119204608/https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2020-28924 |url-status=live }}

{{Anchor|RcloneEUfund}}Release 1.55 of rclone in March 2021 included features sponsored by CERN and their CS3MESH4EOSC project.{{Cite web |last=Craig-Wood |first=Nick |date=March 31, 2021 |title=Rclone 1.55 release |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/rclone-1-55-release/23217 |access-date=2021-05-06 |website=rclone forum |language=en |archive-date=May 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506205712/https://forum.rclone.org/t/rclone-1-55-release/23217 |url-status=live }} The work was EU funded to promote vendor-neutral application programming interfaces and protocols for synchronisation and sharing of academic data on cloud storage.{{Cite web |title=Interactive and agile/responsive sharing mesh of storage, data and applications for EOSC |url=https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/863353 |website=Cordis |access-date=May 6, 2021 |archive-date=May 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506112859/https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/863353 |url-status=live }}

Rclone supports the following services as backends. There are others, built on standard protocols such as WebDAV or S3, that work. WebDAV backends do not support rclone functionality dependent on server side checksum or modtime.{{Cite web |last=Winokur |first=Justin |date=October 5, 2020 |title=iDrive.com Support |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/idrive-com-support/18756/5 |access-date=2020-10-05 |website=rclone forum |language=en-US |archive-date=October 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009222650/https://forum.rclone.org/t/idrive-com-support/18756/5 |url-status=live }}

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{{flatlist|

• 1Fichier
• Alibaba (Aliyun) Object Storage System (OSS)
• Amazon Drive (See note)
• Amazon S3
• Aruba COS{{Cite web |date=October 10, 2020 |title=Aruba Cloud Object Storage |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/aruba-cloud-object-storage/19704 |access-date=2020-10-12 |website=rclone forum |language=en-US |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112304/https://forum.rclone.org/t/aruba-cloud-object-storage/19704 |url-status=live }}
• Backblaze B2
• Box
• C14
• Ceph
• Citrix ShareFile
• Cloudian{{Cite web |last=Roetert |first=Niels |date=August 28, 2019 |title=S3 Bucket migration with metadata issues |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/s3-bucket-migration-with-metadata-issues/10262/11 |access-date=2020-09-26 |website=rclone forum |language=en-US |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112305/https://forum.rclone.org/t/s3-bucket-migration-with-metadata-issues/10262/11 |url-status=live }}
• Dell-EMC ECS{{Cite web |date=September 23, 2020 |title=Is anybody using Dell EMC Object Storage successfully with rclone? |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/is-anybody-using-dell-emc-object-storage-successfully-with-rclone/19328 |access-date=2020-09-25 |website=rclone forum |language=en-US |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112325/https://forum.rclone.org/t/is-anybody-using-dell-emc-object-storage-successfully-with-rclone/19328 |url-status=live }}
• DigitalOcean Spaces
• Dreamhost
• Dropbox
• Enterprise File Fabric{{Cite web |last=Craig-Wood |first=Nick |date=February 2, 2021 |title=Rclone 1.54 release |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/rclone-1-54-release/22051 |access-date=2021-03-08 |website=rclone forum |language=en-US |archive-date=February 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210202171820/https://forum.rclone.org/t/rclone-1-54-release/22051 |url-status=live }}
• FTP
• Google Cloud Storage
• Google Drive
• Google Photos
• HDFS
• HTTP
• Hubic
• IBM COS S3
• Jottacloud

• Koofr
• Mail.ru Cloud
• Memset Memstore
• MEGA.io
• Microsoft Azure Blob Storage
• Microsoft OneDrive
• MinIO
• NetApp StorageGRID{{Cite web |date=November 11, 2019 |title=Can't ls to sub directory? sorry, total newbie here |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/cant-ls-to-sub-directory-sorry-total-newbie-here/12872/7 |access-date=2020-09-22 |website=rclone forum |language=en-US |archive-date=October 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201002004717/https://forum.rclone.org/t/cant-ls-to-sub-directory-sorry-total-newbie-here/12872/7 |url-status=live }}
• Nextcloud
• OVH
• OpenDrive
• OpenIO{{Cite web |title=RClone |url=https://docs.openio.io/latest/source/integrations/cookbook_rclone.html |access-date=2020-09-22 |website=openio.io |archive-date=August 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806003637/https://docs.openio.io/latest/source/integrations/cookbook_rclone.html |url-status=live }}
• OpenStack Swift
• Oracle Cloud Storage
• ownCloud
• pCloud
• premiumize.me
• put.io
• QingStor
• Rackspace Cloud Files
• rsync.net
• Scaleway
• Scality{{Cite web |date=September 16, 2020 |title=OOM with big buckets |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/oom-with-big-buckets/19140 |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=rclone forum |language=en-US |archive-date=September 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919095449/https://forum.rclone.org/t/oom-with-big-buckets/19140 |url-status=live }}
• Seafile
• Selectel{{Cite web |title=Cloud Object Storage that supports an Amazon S3-compatible API |url=https://selectel.ru/en/services/cloud/storage/ |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=selectel.ru |language=en |archive-date=June 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603183929/https://selectel.ru/en/services/cloud/storage/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=July 30, 2020 |title=Add Selectel.com Storage support · Issue #4472 · rclone/rclone |url=https://github.com/rclone/rclone/issues/4472 |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=GitHub |language=en |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112339/https://github.com/rclone/rclone/issues/4472 |url-status=live }}
• SFTP
• StackPath
• SugarSync
• Tardigrade
• Tencent COS
• Wasabi
• Yandex Disk
• Zoho Workdrive

}}

}}

Remotes are usually defined interactively from these backends, local disk, or memory (as S3), with rclone config. Rclone can further wrap those remotes with one or more of alias, chunk, compress, crypt or union, remotes.

Once defined, the remotes are referenced by other rclone commands interchangeably with the local drive. Remote names are followed by a colon to distinguish them from local drives. For example, a remote example_remote containing a folder, or pseudofolder, myfolder is referred to within a command as a path example_remote:/myfolder.{{Cite web |last=McKay |first=Dave |title=How to Use rclone to Back Up to Google Drive on Linux |url=https://www.howtogeek.com/451262/how-to-use-rclone-to-back-up-to-google-drive-on-linux/ |website=How-To Geek |date=January 10, 2020 |access-date=July 30, 2020 |archive-date=August 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804000712/https://www.howtogeek.com/451262/how-to-use-rclone-to-back-up-to-google-drive-on-linux/ |url-status=live }}

Rclone commands directly apply to remotes, or mount them for file access or streaming. With appropriate cache options the mount can be addressed as if a conventional, block level disk. Commands are provided to serve remotes over SFTP, HTTP, WebDAV, FTP and DLNA. Commands can have sub-commands and flags. Filters determine which files on a remote that rclone commands are applied to.{{Cite web |title=Documentation |url=https://rclone.org/docs/ |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=rclone |archive-date=September 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200903160431/https://rclone.org/docs/ |url-status=live }}

rclone rc passes commands or new parameters to existing rclone sessions and has an experimental web browser interface.{{Cite web |title=GUI |url=https://rclone.org/gui/ |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=rclone |archive-date=July 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707102503/https://rclone.org/gui/ |url-status=live }}

Rclone's crypt implements encryption of files at rest in cloud storage. It layers an encrypted remote over a pre-existing, cloud or other remote. Crypt is commonly used to encrypt / decrypt media, for streaming, on consumer storage services such as Google Drive.

Rclone's configuration file contains the crypt password. The password can be lightly obfuscated, or the whole rclone.conf file can be encrypted.

Crypt can either encrypt file content and name, or additionally full paths. In the latter case there is a potential clash with encryption for cloud backends, such as Microsoft OneDrive, having limited path lengths.{{Cite web |date=June 14, 2020 |title=Crypt backend, and path lengths |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/crypt-backend-and-path-lengths/17188 |access-date=2020-10-05 |website=rclone forum |language=en-US |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112305/https://forum.rclone.org/t/crypt-backend-and-path-lengths/17188 |url-status=live }} Crypt remotes do not encrypt object modification time or size. The encryption mechanism for content, name and path is available, for scrutiny, on the rclone website. Key derivation is with scrypt.{{Cite web |date=September 2, 2020 |title=Crypt |url=https://rclone.org/crypt/ |access-date=2020-10-05 |website=rclone.org |archive-date=October 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008012330/https://rclone.org/crypt/ |url-status=live }}

These examples describe paths and file names but object keys behave similarly.

To recursively copy files from directory remote_stuff, at the remote xmpl, to directory stuff in the home folder:-

$ rclone copy -v -P xmpl:/remote_stuff ~/stuff

-v enables logging and -P, progress information. By default rclone checks the file integrity (hash) after copy; can retry each file up to three times if the operation is interrupted; uses up to four parallel transfer threads, and does not apply bandwidth throttling.

Running the above command again copies any new or changed files at the remote to the local folder but, like default rsync behaviour, will not delete from the local directory, files which have been removed from the remote.

To additionally delete files from the local folder which have been removed from the remote - more like the behaviour of rsync with a --delete flag:-

$ rclone sync xmpl:/remote_stuff ~/stuff

And to delete files from the source after they have been transferred to the local directory - more like the behaviour of rsync with a --remove-source-file flag:-

$ rclone move xmpl:/remote_stuff ~/stuff

To mount the remote directory at a mountpoint in the pre-existing, empty stuff directory in the home directory (the ampersand at the end makes the mount command run as a background process):-

$ rclone mount xmpl:/remote_stuff ~/stuff &

Default rclone syntax can be modified. Alternative transfer, filter, conflict and backend specific flags are available. Performance choices include number of concurrent transfer threads; chunk size; bandwidth limit profiling, and cache aggression.

In 2018, University of Kentucky researchers published a conference paper comparing use of rclone and other command line, cloud data transfer agents for big data.{{Cite web |title=Navigating the Unexpected Realities of Big Data Transfers in a Cloud-based World |url=https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10073416 |url-status=live |access-date=August 1, 2020 |website=National Science Foundation |archive-date=October 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009030055/https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10073416 }} The paper was published as a result of funding by the National Science Foundation.{{Cite web |date=May 9, 2018 |title=NSF Award Search: Award#1541380 - CC*DNI Networking Infrastructure: An Software Defined Networking-Enabled Research Infrastructure |url=https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1541380 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180928092219/https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1541380 |archive-date=September 28, 2018 |access-date=August 1, 2020 |website=National Science Foundation}}

Later that year, University of Utah's Center for High Performance Computing examined the impact of rclone options on data transfer rates.{{Cite web |title=rclone - Center for High Performance Computing - The University of Utah |url=https://www.chpc.utah.edu/documentation/software/rclone.php#eteooop |access-date=August 1, 2020 |website=The University of Utah |archive-date=August 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810070207/https://www.chpc.utah.edu/documentation/software/rclone.php#eteooop |url-status=live }}

Examples are University of Maryland,{{Cite web |title=HPC Software Rclone |url=https://hpcc.umd.edu/hpcc/help/software/rclone.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024100211/http://hpcc.umd.edu/hpcc/help/software/rclone.html |archive-date=October 24, 2019 |access-date=July 30, 2020 |website=University of Maryland}} Iowa State University,{{Cite web |title=Rclone - High Performance Computing |url=https://www.hpc.iastate.edu/guides/rclone |website=Iowa State University |access-date=July 30, 2020 |archive-date=July 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703214957/https://www.hpc.iastate.edu/guides/rclone |url-status=live }} Trinity College Dublin,{{Cite web |title=rclone |url=https://www.tchpc.tcd.ie/node/1346 |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Trinity College Dublin |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112316/https://www.tchpc.tcd.ie/node/1346 |url-status=live }} NYU,{{Cite web |last=Deng |first=Wensheng |date=September 30, 2018 |title=Transferring files between the HPC Prince Cluster and Google Drive - High Performance Computing at NYU - NYU Wikis |url=https://wikis.nyu.edu/display/NYUHPC/Transferring+files+between+the+HPC+Prince+Cluster+and+Google+Drive |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=New York University |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112436/https://shibboleth.nyu.edu/idp/profile/SAML2/Redirect/SSO?execution=e1s1 |url-status=live }} BYU,{{Cite web |date=August 19, 2020 |title=Office of Research Computing - BYU |url=https://rc.byu.edu/wiki/?id=Rclone |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Brigham Young University |archive-date=September 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919020104/https://rc.byu.edu/wiki/?id=Rclone |url-status=live }} Indiana University,{{Cite web |last=Henderson |first=Rob |date=March 4, 2019 |title=Using Box under Linux - Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering KB - Indiana University Enterprise Confluence |url=https://uisapp2.iu.edu/confluence-prd/display/SOICKB/Using+Box+under+Linux |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Indiana University Bloomington |archive-date=September 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921074521/https://uisapp2.iu.edu/confluence-prd/display/SOICKB/Using+Box+under+Linux |url-status=live }} CSC Finland,{{Cite web |date=August 11, 2020 |title=Using Allas with Rclone on CSC supercomputers - Docs CSC |url=https://docs.csc.fi/data/Allas/using_allas/rclone/ |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=CSC – IT Center for Science |archive-date=May 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220510122421/https://docs.csc.fi/data/Allas/using_allas/rclone/ |url-status=live }} Utrecht University,{{Cite web |date=February 18, 2019 |title=How to synchronize data with HPC platforms - News - Universiteit Utrecht |url=https://www.uu.nl/en/news/how-to-synchronize-data-with-hpc-platforms |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Utrecht University |language=en |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112343/https://www.uu.nl/en/news/how-to-synchronize-data-with-hpc-platforms |url-status=live }} University of Nebraska,{{Cite web |title=HCC-DOCS |url=https://hcc.unl.edu/docs/handling_data/data_transfer/using_rclone_with_hcc/ |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=University of Nebraska–Lincoln |archive-date=October 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001045833/https://hcc.unl.edu/docs/handling_data/data_transfer/using_rclone_with_hcc/ |url-status=live }} University of Utah,{{Cite web |title=rclone - Center for High Performance Computing - The University of Utah |url=https://www.chpc.utah.edu/documentation/software/rclone.php |website=The University of Utah |access-date=July 30, 2020 |archive-date=August 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810070207/https://www.chpc.utah.edu/documentation/software/rclone.php |url-status=live }} North Carolina State University,{{Cite web |title=High Powered Computing Cluster – Mathematics IT |url=https://wp.math.ncsu.edu/it/high-powered-computing-cluster/ |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=North Carolina State University |language=en-US |archive-date=May 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518022922/https://wp.math.ncsu.edu/it/high-powered-computing-cluster/ |url-status=live }} Stony Brook,{{Cite web |date=August 11, 2020 |title=Using rclone to backup data |url=https://it.stonybrook.edu/help/kb/using-rclone-to-backup-data |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Stony Brook University |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112321/https://it.stonybrook.edu/help/kb/using-rclone-to-backup-data |url-status=live }} Tulane University,{{Cite web |title=cypress/FileTransfer – hpc |url=https://wiki.hpc.tulane.edu/trac/wiki/cypress/FileTransfer |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Tulane University |archive-date=September 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927060405/https://wiki.hpc.tulane.edu/trac/wiki/cypress/FileTransfer |url-status=live }} Washington State University,{{Cite web |title=The Forbes Group |url=https://swan.physics.wsu.edu/forbes/draft/git-annex/#Rclone |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Washington State University |archive-date=January 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120161035/https://swan.physics.wsu.edu/forbes/draft/git-annex/#Rclone |url-status=live }} Georgia Tech,{{Cite web |title=Dropbox, HPC, and Rclone |url=http://bioit.biology.gatech.edu/content/dropbox-hpc-and-rclone |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Georgia Tech |archive-date=May 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220510122418/http://bioit.biology.gatech.edu/content/dropbox-hpc-and-rclone |url-status=live }} National Institutes of Health,{{Cite web |title=Rclone on Helix and Biowulf |url=https://hpc.nih.gov/apps/rclone.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170108045148/https://hpc.nih.gov/apps/rclone.html |archive-date=January 8, 2017 |access-date=July 30, 2020 |website=National Institute of Health}} Wharton,{{Cite news |title=Rclone |url=https://research-it.wharton.upenn.edu/tools/rclone/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191218234328/https://research-it.wharton.upenn.edu/tools/rclone/ |archive-date=December 18, 2019 |access-date=July 30, 2020 |website=University of Pennsylvania}} Yale,{{Cite web |title=Rclone - Yale Center for Research Computing |url=https://docs.ycrc.yale.edu/clusters-at-yale/guides/rclone/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200516135623/https://docs.ycrc.yale.edu/clusters-at-yale/guides/rclone/ |archive-date=May 16, 2020 |access-date=July 30, 2020 |website=Yale University}} Harvard,{{Cite web |title=rclone – transfer files to/from cloud storage – FASRC DOCS |url=https://docs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/kb/rclone/ |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Harvard University |language=en-US |archive-date=September 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200915054844/https://docs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/kb/rclone/ |url-status=live }} Minnesota,{{Cite web |title=rclone - The Minnesota Supercomputing Institute |url=https://www.msi.umn.edu/sw/rclone |access-date=August 1, 2020 |website=University of Minnesota |archive-date=September 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925104656/https://www.msi.umn.edu/sw/rclone |url-status=live }} Michigan State,{{Cite web |title=Rclone on HPCC - Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research - Michigan State University |url=https://icer.msu.edu/about/announcements/rclone-hpcc |access-date=August 1, 2020 |website=Michigan State University |archive-date=March 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200310135624/https://icer.msu.edu/about/announcements/rclone-hpcc |url-status=live }} Case Western Reserve University,{{Cite web |title=Rclone - Google Drive - hpc |url=https://sites.google.com/a/case.edu/hpcc/helpful-references/transferring-files-hpcc/rclone---google-drive |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Case Western Reserve University |archive-date=October 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027175920/https://sites.google.com/a/case.edu/hpcc/helpful-references/transferring-files-hpcc/rclone---google-drive |url-status=live }} University of South Dakota, Northern Arizona University,{{Cite web |title=Cloud Storage Management |url=https://in.nau.edu/hpc/overview/managing-cloud-storage/ |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Northern Arizona University |language=en-US |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112321/https://in.nau.edu/hpc/overview/managing-cloud-storage/ |url-status=live }} University of Pennsylvania,{{Cite web |title=HPC Software Rclone |url=https://hpcwiki.pmacs.upenn.edu/wiki/index.php/HPC:Rclone |url-status=live |access-date=July 30, 2020 |website=Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania |archive-date=May 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220508204946/https://hpcwiki.pmacs.upenn.edu/wiki/index.php/HPC:Rclone }} Stanford,{{Cite web |title=Rclone - Sherlock |url=https://www.sherlock.stanford.edu/docs/software/using/rclone/ |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Stanford University |archive-date=November 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126085841/https://www.sherlock.stanford.edu/docs/software/using/rclone/ |url-status=live }} University of Southern California,{{Cite web |date=August 1, 2019 |title=USC Research Computing, New Faculty Orientation Presentation |url=https://16mhpx3atvadrnpip2kwi9or-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/HighPerformanceComputing.2019.pdf |access-date=July 30, 2020 |website=University of Southern California |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112421/https://16mhpx3atvadrnpip2kwi9or-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/HighPerformanceComputing.2019.pdf |url-status=live }} UC Santa Barbara,{{Cite web |title=Introduction to HPC Resources and Linux |url=http://csc.cnsi.ucsb.edu/sites/csc.cnsi.ucsb.edu/files/docs/hpcintro_2018_0.pdf |access-date=July 30, 2020 |website=University of California, Santa Barbara |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112423/http://csc.cnsi.ucsb.edu/sites/csc.cnsi.ucsb.edu/files/docs/hpcintro_2018_0.pdf |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Copying files to Google (Google Drive) |url=https://csc.cnsi.ucsb.edu/docs/copying-files-google-google-drive |access-date=July 30, 2020 |website=University of California, Santa Barbara |archive-date=October 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027092131/https://csc.cnsi.ucsb.edu/docs/copying-files-google-google-drive |url-status=live }} UC Irvine,{{Cite web |last=Mangalam |first=Harry |date=March 23, 2018 |title=Pushing data with rclone |url=http://moo.nac.uci.edu/~hjm/HOWTO-rclone-to-Gdrive.html |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=University of California, Irvine |archive-date=October 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008145123/http://moo.nac.uci.edu/~hjm/HOWTO-rclone-to-Gdrive.html |url-status=live }} UC Berkeley,{{Cite web |title=Transferring Data Between Savio and Your bDrive (Google Drive) Account |url=https://research-it.berkeley.edu/services/high-performance-computing/transferring-data-between-savio-and-your-bdrive-google-drive |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413145023/http://research-it.berkeley.edu/services/high-performance-computing/transferring-data-between-savio-and-your-bdrive-google-drive |archive-date=April 13, 2019 |access-date=July 30, 2020 |website=University of California, Berkeley}}{{Cite web |title=Take advantage of unlimited bDrive (and Box) storage using rclone |url=https://research-it.berkeley.edu/services/research-data-management-service/take-advantage-unlimited-bdrive-and-box-storage-using |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=University of California, Berkeley |language=en |archive-date=September 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929012701/https://research-it.berkeley.edu/services/research-data-management-service/take-advantage-unlimited-bdrive-and-box-storage-using |url-status=live }} and SURFnet.{{Cite web |title=Object Store: store large quantities of data |url=https://www.surf.nl/en/object-store-store-large-quantities-of-data |access-date=2021-05-06 |website=surf.nl |language=en |archive-date=May 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506224304/https://www.surf.nl/en/object-store-store-large-quantities-of-data |url-status=live }}

{{Undue weight section|date=January 2023|to=the idea that rclone is used for cybercrime, when most of the time it is used for innocuous purposes}}

May 2020 reports stated rclone had been used by hackers to exploit Diebold Nixdorf ATMs with ProLock ransomware.{{Cite web |last=Millman |first=Rene |date=May 23, 2020 |title=Diebold Nixdorf ATM attack by ProLock ransomware used QakBot trojan to access networks |url=https://www.scmagazineuk.com/diebold-nixdorf-atm-attack-prolock-ransomware-used-qakbot-trojan-access-networks/article/1683611 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609134738/https://www.scmagazineuk.com/diebold-nixdorf-atm-attack-prolock-ransomware-used-qakbot-trojan-access-networks/article/1683611 |archive-date=June 9, 2020 |access-date=July 30, 2020|website=S C Magazine}}{{Cite web |last=Ilascu |first=Ionut |date=May 14, 2020 |title=ProLock Ransomware teams up with QakBot trojan for network access |url=https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/prolock-ransomware-teams-up-with-qakbot-trojan-for-network-access/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613193405/https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/prolock-ransomware-teams-up-with-qakbot-trojan-for-network-access/ |archive-date=June 13, 2020 |access-date=July 30, 2020 |website=BleepingComputer}} The FBI issued a Flash Alert MI-000125-MW on May 4, 2020, in relation to the compromise.{{Cite web |last=Gatlan |first=Sergiu |date=September 5, 2020 |title=FBI issues second alert about ProLock ransomware stealing data |url=https://www.databreaches.net/fbi-issues-second-alert-about-prolock-ransomware-stealing-data/ |access-date=2020-09-17 |language=en-US |archive-date=September 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929232554/https://www.databreaches.net/fbi-issues-second-alert-about-prolock-ransomware-stealing-data/ |url-status=live |website=Data Breaches}} They issued a further, related alert 20200901–001 in September 2020. Attackers had exfiltrated / encrypted data from organisations involved in healthcare, construction, finance, and legal services. Multiple US government agencies, and industrial entities were affected. Researchers established the hackers spent about a month exploring the breached networks, using rclone to archive stolen data to cloud storage, before encrypting the target system.{{Cite web |last=Ilascu |first=Ionut |date=September 10, 2020 |title=ProLock ransomware increases payment demand and victim count |url=https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/prolock-ransomware-increases-payment-demand-and-victim-count/ |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=BleepingComputer |language=en-us |archive-date=September 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200910141046/https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/prolock-ransomware-increases-payment-demand-and-victim-count/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Skulkin |first=Oleg |date=May 14, 2020 |title=ATT&CKing ProLock Ransomware |url=https://www.group-ib.com/blog/prolock |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=group-ib.com |archive-date=August 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803234549/https://www.group-ib.com/blog/prolock |url-status=live }} Reported targets included LaSalle County, and the city of Novi Sad.{{Cite web |title=ProLock Ransomware |url=https://www.sisainfosec.com/downloads/Advisory/ProLock-Ransomware.pdf |access-date=July 30, 2020 |website=sisainfosec.com }}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{Cite news |last=Abrams |first=Lawrence |date=March 2, 2020 |title=New PwndLocker Ransomware Targeting U.S. Cities, Enterprises |url=https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-pwndlocker-ransomware-targeting-us-cities-enterprises/ |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=BleepingComputer |language=en-us |archive-date=September 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200916093753/https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-pwndlocker-ransomware-targeting-us-cities-enterprises/ |url-status=live }}

The FBI warned January 2021, in Private Industry Notification 20210106–001, of extortion activity using Egregor ransomware and rclone. Organisations worldwide had been threatened with public release of exfiltrated data. In some cases rclone had been disguised under the name svchost.{{Cite web |date=January 6, 2021 |title=FBI Private Industry Notification 20210106-001 |url=https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20444693/fbi-pin-egregor-ransomware-bc-01062021.pdf |website=FBI |access-date=January 21, 2021 |archive-date=January 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108154340/https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20444693/fbi-pin-egregor-ransomware-bc-01062021.pdf |url-status=live }} Bookseller Barnes & Noble, US retailer Kmart, games developer Ubisoft and the Vancouver metro system have been reported as victims.{{Cite web |last=Montalbano |first=Elizabeth |date=January 8, 2021 |title=FBI Warns of Egregor Attacks on Businesses Worldwide |url=https://threatpost.com/fbi-egregor-attacks-businesses-worldwide/162885/ |access-date=2021-01-21 |website=Threatpost |language=en |archive-date=January 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122154021/https://threatpost.com/fbi-egregor-attacks-businesses-worldwide/162885/ |url-status=live }}

An April 2021, cybersecurity investigation into SonicWall VPN zero-day vulnerability SNWLID-2021-0001{{Cite web |date=February 3, 2021 |title=Security Advisory |url=https://psirt.global.sonicwall.com/vuln-detail/SNWLID-2021-0001 |access-date=2021-05-06 |website=psirt.global.sonicwall.com |archive-date=May 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508171157/https://psirt.global.sonicwall.com/vuln-detail/SNWLID-2021-0001 |url-status=live }} by FireEye's Mandiant team established attackers UNC2447 used rclone for reconnaissance and exfiltration of victims' files.{{Cite web |last1=McLellan |first1=Tyler |last2=Moore |first2=Justin |last3=Leong |first3=Raymond |date=April 29, 2021 |title=UNC2447 SOMBRAT and FIVEHANDS Ransomware: A Sophisticated Financial Threat |url=https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2021/04/unc2447-sombrat-and-fivehands-ransomware-sophisticated-financial-threat.html |access-date=2021-05-06 |website=FireEye |language=en |archive-date=May 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505050723/https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2021/04/unc2447-sombrat-and-fivehands-ransomware-sophisticated-financial-threat.html |url-status=live }} Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Analysis Report AR21-126A confirmed this use of rclone in FiveHands ransomware attacks.{{Cite web |date=May 6, 2021 |title=FiveHands Ransomware {{!}} CISA |url=https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/analysis-reports/ar21-126a |access-date=2021-05-10 |website=cert |archive-date=May 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510182648/https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/analysis-reports/ar21-126a |url-status=live }}

A June 2021, Microsoft Security Intelligence Twitter post identified use of rclone in BazaCall cyber attacks.{{Cite web |date=June 22, 2021 |title=Microsoft Security Intelligence |via=Twitter |url=https://twitter.com/msftsecintel/status/1407470790333722628 |access-date=2021-06-28 |language=en-GB |archive-date=June 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628121442/https://twitter.com/msftsecintel/status/1407470790333722628 |url-status=live }} The attackers sent emails encouraging recipients to contact a fake call centre to cancel a paid for service. The call centre team then instructed victims to download a hostile file that installed malware on the target network, ultimately allowing use of rclone for covert extraction of potentially sensitive data.

In a 2021, Star Wars Day blog article, Managed Security Service Provider Red Canary announced Rclone Wars, an allusion to Clone Wars. The post notes illicit use of other legitimate file transfer utilities in exfiltrate and extort schemes but focuses on MEGAsync, MEGAcmd and rclone. To identify use of renamed rclone executables on compromised devices the authors suggest monitoring for distinctive rclone top level commands and command line flag strings such as remote: and \\.{{Cite web |last1=Schoenfeld |first1=Justin |last2=Didier |first2=Aaron |date=May 4, 2021 |title=Rclone Wars: Transferring leverage in a ransomware attack |url=https://redcanary.com/blog/rclone-mega-extortion/ |access-date=2021-05-06 |website=Red Canary |archive-date=May 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506205844/https://redcanary.com/blog/rclone-mega-extortion/ |url-status=live }}

Rsync transfers files with other computers that have rsync installed.{{Cite web |title=rsync(1) - Linux man page |url=https://linux.die.net/man/1/rsync |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=linux.die.net |archive-date=January 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101060106/https://linux.die.net/man/1/rsync |url-status=live }} It operates at the block, rather than file, level and has a delta algorithm so that it only needs to transfer changes in files. Rsync preserves file attributes and permissions. Rclone has a wider range of content management capabilities, and types of backend it can address, but only works at a whole file / object level.{{Cite web |date=July 9, 2017 |title=Difference between Rclone and Rsync when syncing to the Local Filesystem? |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/difference-between-rclone-and-rsync-when-syncing-to-the-local-filesystem/3088/2 |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=rclone forum |archive-date=April 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220420020113/https://forum.rclone.org/t/difference-between-rclone-and-rsync-when-syncing-to-the-local-filesystem/3088/2 |url-status=live }} It does not currently preserve permissions and attributes.{{Cite web |date=September 11, 2019 |title=Rclone instead of rsync |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/rclone-instead-of-rsync/11746 |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=rclone forum |language=en-US |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112324/https://forum.rclone.org/t/rclone-instead-of-rsync/11746 |url-status=live }} Rclone is designed to have some tolerance of intermittent and unreliable connections or remote services. Its transfers are optimised for high latency networks. Rclone decides which of those whole files / objects to transfer after obtaining checksums, to compare, from the remote server. Where checksums are not available, rclone can use object size and timestamp.{{Cite web |title=SFTP |url=https://rclone.org/sftp/#limitations |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=rclone |archive-date=August 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818140024/https://rclone.org/sftp/#limitations |url-status=live }}

Rsync is single threaded.{{Cite web |last=Riel |first=Manuel |date=June 5, 2020 |title=bash - Speed up rsync with Simultaneous/Concurrent File Transfers? |url=https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24058544/speed-up-rsync-with-simultaneous-concurrent-file-transfers |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Stack Overflow |archive-date=August 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190806235906/https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24058544/speed-up-rsync-with-simultaneous-concurrent-file-transfers |url-status=live }} Rclone is multi threaded with a user definable number of simultaneous transfers.{{Cite web |date=August 9, 2020 |title=Documentation |url=https://rclone.org/docs/#transfers-n |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=rclone |archive-date=September 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200903160431/https://rclone.org/docs/#transfers-n |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Winokur |first=Justin |date=September 12, 2020 |title=Nick giving a talk about Rclone and Backblaze |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/nick-giving-a-talk-about-rclone-and-backblaze/19028/9 |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=rclone forum |language=en-US |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112324/https://forum.rclone.org/t/nick-giving-a-talk-about-rclone-and-backblaze/19028/9 |url-status=live }}

Rclone can pipe data between two completely remote locations, sometimes without local download. During an rsync transfer, one side must be a local drive.

Rclone ignores trailing slashes. Rsync requires their correct use.{{Cite web |last1=Levens |first1=Skip |last2=Craig-Wood |first2=Nick |date=September 17, 2020 |title=Tapping the Power of Cloud Copy & Sync with Rclone |url=https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/14807/433302/tapping-the-power-of-cloud-copy-sync-with-rclone |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=brighttalk.com |archive-date=October 31, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031224849/https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/14807/433302/tapping-the-power-of-cloud-copy-sync-with-rclone |url-status=live }} Rclone filters require the use of ** to refer to the contents of a directory. Rsync does not.{{Cite web |last=Krajnik |first=Daniel |date=February 1, 2021 |title=How to exclude from directory ?! why is exclude not working? why is it even complicated at all?! |url=https://forum.rclone.org/t/how-to-exclude-from-directory-why-is-exclude-not-working-why-is-it-even-complicated-at-all/22037/3 |access-date=2021-02-02 |website=rclone forum |language=en-US |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602112324/https://forum.rclone.org/t/how-to-exclude-from-directory-why-is-exclude-not-working-why-is-it-even-complicated-at-all/22037/3 |url-status=live }}

Eponymous cloud storage service rsync.net provides remote unix filesystems so that customers can run rsync and other standard Unix tools.{{Cite web |title=rsync.net Cloud Storage for Offsite Backups |url=https://www.rsync.net/about.html |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=rsync.net |archive-date=December 10, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210215611/https://www.rsync.net/about.html |url-status=live }} They also offer rclone only accounts.{{Cite web |title=Cloud Storage for Offsite Backups - rclone support |url=https://www.rsync.net/products/rclone.html |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=rsync.net |archive-date=August 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820083447/https://rsync.net/products/rclone.html |url-status=live }}

In 2016, a poster on Hacker News summarised rclone's relationship to rsync as:- (rclone) exists to give you rsync to things that aren't rsync. If you want to rsync to things that are rsync, use rsync.{{Cite web |date=August 31, 2016 |title=Rclone: rsync for cloud storage |url=https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12398303 |access-date=2020-09-17 |website=Hacker News |archive-date=December 4, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204053210/https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12398303 |url-status=live }}

{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}

• Rsync
• Comparison of file synchronization software

{{reflist}}

• {{Official website|https://rclone.org/}}

{{Cloud computing}}

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Category:2012 software

Category:Cloud storage

Category:Network file systems

Category:Data synchronization

Category:Free backup software

Category:Backup software for Linux

Category:Free network-related software

Category:Network file transfer protocols

Category:Unix network-related software

Category:Free file transfer software

Category:Cloud storage gateways

Category:File transfer software

Category:Software using the MIT license

Category:SSH File Transfer Protocol clients

Category:FTP clients

Category:Free FTP clients

Category:MacOS Internet software

Category:Free file sharing software

Category:Cross-platform free software

Category:Free software programmed in Go

Category:Free storage software

Category:Object storage

Category:Distributed file systems

Category:Userspace file systems

Category:File copy utilities

Category:Disk usage analysis software

Category:Disk encryption

Category:Special-purpose file systems

Category:Cryptographic software

Category:Free special-purpose file systems

Category:Cloud computing

Category:Cloud infrastructure

Category:Free software for cloud computing

Category:Backup software for Windows

Category:Backup software for macOS

Category:Cloud clients

Category:Cloud applications