rclone/docs/content/http.md

---
title: "HTTP Remote"
description: "Read only remote for HTTP servers"
---

# {{< icon "fa fa-globe" >}} HTTP

The HTTP remote is a read only remote for reading files of a
webserver.  The webserver should provide file listings which rclone
will read and turn into a remote.  This has been tested with common
webservers such as Apache/Nginx/Caddy and will likely work with file
listings from most web servers.  (If it doesn't then please file an
issue, or send a pull request!)

Paths are specified as `remote:` or `remote:path`.

The `remote:` represents the configured [url](#http-url), and any path following
it will be resolved relative to this url, according to the URL standard. This
means with remote url `https://beta.rclone.org/branch` and path `fix`, the
resolved URL will be `https://beta.rclone.org/branch/fix`, while with path
`/fix` the resolved URL will be `https://beta.rclone.org/fix` as the absolute
path is resolved from the root of the domain.

If the path following the `remote:` ends with `/` it will be assumed to point
to a directory. If the path does not end with `/`, then a HEAD request is sent
and the response used to decide if it it is treated as a file or a directory
(run with `-vv` to see details). When [--http-no-head](#http-no-head) is
specified, a path without ending `/` is always assumed to be a file. If rclone
incorrectly assumes the path is a file, the solution is to specify the path with
ending `/`. When you know the path is a directory, ending it with `/` is always
better as it avoids the initial HEAD request.

To just download a single file it is easier to use
[copyurl](/commands/rclone_copyurl/).

## Configuration

Here is an example of how to make a remote called `remote`.  First
run:

     rclone config

This will guide you through an interactive setup process:

```
No remotes found, make a new one?
n) New remote
s) Set configuration password
q) Quit config
n/s/q> n
name> remote
Type of storage to configure.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
[snip]
XX / http Connection
   \ "http"
[snip]
Storage> http
URL of http host to connect to
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
 1 / Connect to example.com
   \ "https://example.com"
url> https://beta.rclone.org
Remote config
--------------------
[remote]
url = https://beta.rclone.org
--------------------
y) Yes this is OK
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y
Current remotes:

Name                 Type
====                 ====
remote               http

e) Edit existing remote
n) New remote
d) Delete remote
r) Rename remote
c) Copy remote
s) Set configuration password
q) Quit config
e/n/d/r/c/s/q> q
```

This remote is called `remote` and can now be used like this

See all the top level directories

    rclone lsd remote:

List the contents of a directory

    rclone ls remote:directory

Sync the remote `directory` to `/home/local/directory`, deleting any excess files.

    rclone sync -i remote:directory /home/local/directory

### Read only

This remote is read only - you can't upload files to an HTTP server.

### Modified time

Most HTTP servers store time accurate to 1 second.

### Checksum

No checksums are stored.

### Usage without a config file

Since the http remote only has one config parameter it is easy to use
without a config file:

    rclone lsd --http-url https://beta.rclone.org :http:

or:

    rclone lsd :http,url='https://beta.rclone.org':

{{< rem autogenerated options start" - DO NOT EDIT - instead edit fs.RegInfo in backend/http/http.go then run make backenddocs" >}}
### Standard options

Here are the standard options specific to http (http Connection).

#### --http-url

URL of http host to connect to.

E.g. "https://example.com", or "https://user:pass@example.com" to use a username and password.

- Config:      url
- Env Var:     RCLONE_HTTP_URL
- Type:        string
- Default:     ""

### Advanced options

Here are the advanced options specific to http (http Connection).

#### --http-headers

Set HTTP headers for all transactions.

Use this to set additional HTTP headers for all transactions.

The input format is comma separated list of key,value pairs.  Standard
[CSV encoding](https://godoc.org/encoding/csv) may be used.

For example to set a Cookie use 'Cookie,name=value', or '"Cookie","name=value"'.

You can set multiple headers, e.g. '"Cookie","name=value","Authorization","xxx"'.


- Config:      headers
- Env Var:     RCLONE_HTTP_HEADERS
- Type:        CommaSepList
- Default:     

#### --http-no-slash

Set this if the site doesn't end directories with /.

Use this if your target website does not use / on the end of
directories.

A / on the end of a path is how rclone normally tells the difference
between files and directories.  If this flag is set, then rclone will
treat all files with Content-Type: text/html as directories and read
URLs from them rather than downloading them.

Note that this may cause rclone to confuse genuine HTML files with
directories.

- Config:      no_slash
- Env Var:     RCLONE_HTTP_NO_SLASH
- Type:        bool
- Default:     false

#### --http-no-head

Don't use HEAD requests to find file sizes in dir listing.

If your site is being very slow to load then you can try this option.
Normally rclone does a HEAD request for each potential file in a
directory listing to:

- find its size
- check it really exists
- check to see if it is a directory

If you set this option, rclone will not do the HEAD request.  This will mean

- directory listings are much quicker
- rclone won't have the times or sizes of any files
- some files that don't exist may be in the listing


- Config:      no_head
- Env Var:     RCLONE_HTTP_NO_HEAD
- Type:        bool
- Default:     false

{{< rem autogenerated options stop >}}

## Limitations

`rclone about` is not supported by the HTTP backend. Backends without
this capability cannot determine free space for an rclone mount or
use policy `mfs` (most free space) as a member of an rclone union
remote.

See [List of backends that do not support rclone about](https://rclone.org/overview/#optional-features)
See [rclone about](https://rclone.org/commands/rclone_about/)