--- date: 2018-03-19T10:05:30Z title: "rclone mount" slug: rclone_mount url: /commands/rclone_mount/ --- ## rclone mount Mount the remote as a mountpoint. **EXPERIMENTAL** ### Synopsis rclone mount allows Linux, FreeBSD, macOS and Windows to mount any of Rclone's cloud storage systems as a file system with FUSE. This is **EXPERIMENTAL** - use with care. First set up your remote using `rclone config`. Check it works with `rclone ls` etc. Start the mount like this rclone mount remote:path/to/files /path/to/local/mount Or on Windows like this where X: is an unused drive letter rclone mount remote:path/to/files X: When the program ends, either via Ctrl+C or receiving a SIGINT or SIGTERM signal, the mount is automatically stopped. The umount operation can fail, for example when the mountpoint is busy. When that happens, it is the user's responsibility to stop the mount manually with # Linux fusermount -u /path/to/local/mount # OS X umount /path/to/local/mount ### Installing on Windows To run rclone mount on Windows, you will need to download and install [WinFsp](http://www.secfs.net/winfsp/). WinFsp is an [open source](https://github.com/billziss-gh/winfsp) Windows File System Proxy which makes it easy to write user space file systems for Windows. It provides a FUSE emulation layer which rclone uses combination with [cgofuse](https://github.com/billziss-gh/cgofuse). Both of these packages are by Bill Zissimopoulos who was very helpful during the implementation of rclone mount for Windows. #### Windows caveats Note that drives created as Administrator are not visible by other accounts (including the account that was elevated as Administrator). So if you start a Windows drive from an Administrative Command Prompt and then try to access the same drive from Explorer (which does not run as Administrator), you will not be able to see the new drive. The easiest way around this is to start the drive from a normal command prompt. It is also possible to start a drive from the SYSTEM account (using [the WinFsp.Launcher infrastructure](https://github.com/billziss-gh/winfsp/wiki/WinFsp-Service-Architecture)) which creates drives accessible for everyone on the system or alternatively using [the nssm service manager](https://nssm.cc/usage). ### Limitations Without the use of "--vfs-cache-mode" this can only write files sequentially, it can only seek when reading. This means that many applications won't work with their files on an rclone mount without "--vfs-cache-mode writes" or "--vfs-cache-mode full". See the [File Caching](#file-caching) section for more info. The bucket based remotes (eg Swift, S3, Google Compute Storage, B2, Hubic) won't work from the root - you will need to specify a bucket, or a path within the bucket. So `swift:` won't work whereas `swift:bucket` will as will `swift:bucket/path`. None of these support the concept of directories, so empty directories will have a tendency to disappear once they fall out of the directory cache. Only supported on Linux, FreeBSD, OS X and Windows at the moment. ### rclone mount vs rclone sync/copy File systems expect things to be 100% reliable, whereas cloud storage systems are a long way from 100% reliable. The rclone sync/copy commands cope with this with lots of retries. However rclone mount can't use retries in the same way without making local copies of the uploads. Look at the **EXPERIMENTAL** [file caching](#file-caching) for solutions to make mount mount more reliable. ### Attribute caching You can use the flag --attr-timeout to set the time the kernel caches the attributes (size, modification time etc) for directory entries. The default is 0s - no caching - which is recommended for filesystems which can change outside the control of the kernel. If you set it higher ('1s' or '1m' say) then the kernel will call back to rclone less often making it more efficient, however there may be strange effects when files change on the remote. This is the same as setting the attr_timeout option in mount.fuse. ### Filters Note that all the rclone filters can be used to select a subset of the files to be visible in the mount. ### systemd When running rclone mount as a systemd service, it is possible to use Type=notify. In this case the service will enter the started state after the mountpoint has been successfully set up. Units having the rclone mount service specified as a requirement will see all files and folders immediately in this mode. ### Directory Cache Using the `--dir-cache-time` flag, you can set how long a directory should be considered up to date and not refreshed from the backend. Changes made locally in the mount may appear immediately or invalidate the cache. However, changes done on the remote will only be picked up once the cache expires. Alternatively, you can send a `SIGHUP` signal to rclone for it to flush all directory caches, regardless of how old they are. Assuming only one rclone instance is running, you can reset the cache like this: kill -SIGHUP $(pidof rclone) If you configure rclone with a [remote control](/rc) then you can use rclone rc to flush the whole directory cache: rclone rc vfs/forget Or individual files or directories: rclone rc vfs/forget file=path/to/file dir=path/to/dir ### File Caching **NB** File caching is **EXPERIMENTAL** - use with care! These flags control the VFS file caching options. The VFS layer is used by rclone mount to make a cloud storage system work more like a normal file system. You'll need to enable VFS caching if you want, for example, to read and write simultaneously to a file. See below for more details. Note that the VFS cache works in addition to the cache backend and you may find that you need one or the other or both. --cache-dir string Directory rclone will use for caching. --vfs-cache-max-age duration Max age of objects in the cache. (default 1h0m0s) --vfs-cache-mode string Cache mode off|minimal|writes|full (default "off") --vfs-cache-poll-interval duration Interval to poll the cache for stale objects. (default 1m0s) If run with `-vv` rclone will print the location of the file cache. The files are stored in the user cache file area which is OS dependent but can be controlled with `--cache-dir` or setting the appropriate environment variable. The cache has 4 different modes selected by `--vfs-cache-mode`. The higher the cache mode the more compatible rclone becomes at the cost of using disk space. Note that files are written back to the remote only when they are closed so if rclone is quit or dies with open files then these won't get written back to the remote. However they will still be in the on disk cache. #### --vfs-cache-mode off In this mode the cache will read directly from the remote and write directly to the remote without caching anything on disk. This will mean some operations are not possible * Files can't be opened for both read AND write * Files opened for write can't be seeked * Existing files opened for write must have O_TRUNC set * Files open for read with O_TRUNC will be opened write only * Files open for write only will behave as if O_TRUNC was supplied * Open modes O_APPEND, O_TRUNC are ignored * If an upload fails it can't be retried #### --vfs-cache-mode minimal This is very similar to "off" except that files opened for read AND write will be buffered to disks. This means that files opened for write will be a lot more compatible, but uses the minimal disk space. These operations are not possible * Files opened for write only can't be seeked * Existing files opened for write must have O_TRUNC set * Files opened for write only will ignore O_APPEND, O_TRUNC * If an upload fails it can't be retried #### --vfs-cache-mode writes In this mode files opened for read only are still read directly from the remote, write only and read/write files are buffered to disk first. This mode should support all normal file system operations. If an upload fails it will be retried up to --low-level-retries times. #### --vfs-cache-mode full In this mode all reads and writes are buffered to and from disk. When a file is opened for read it will be downloaded in its entirety first. This may be appropriate for your needs, or you may prefer to look at the cache backend which does a much more sophisticated job of caching, including caching directory hierarchies and chunks of files. In this mode, unlike the others, when a file is written to the disk, it will be kept on the disk after it is written to the remote. It will be purged on a schedule according to `--vfs-cache-max-age`. This mode should support all normal file system operations. If an upload or download fails it will be retried up to --low-level-retries times. ``` rclone mount remote:path /path/to/mountpoint [flags] ``` ### Options ``` --allow-non-empty Allow mounting over a non-empty directory. --allow-other Allow access to other users. --allow-root Allow access to root user. --attr-timeout duration Time for which file/directory attributes are cached. --daemon Run mount as a daemon (background mode). --debug-fuse Debug the FUSE internals - needs -v. --default-permissions Makes kernel enforce access control based on the file mode. --dir-cache-time duration Time to cache directory entries for. (default 5m0s) --fuse-flag stringArray Flags or arguments to be passed direct to libfuse/WinFsp. Repeat if required. --gid uint32 Override the gid field set by the filesystem. (default 502) -h, --help help for mount --max-read-ahead int The number of bytes that can be prefetched for sequential reads. (default 128k) --no-checksum Don't compare checksums on up/download. --no-modtime Don't read/write the modification time (can speed things up). --no-seek Don't allow seeking in files. -o, --option stringArray Option for libfuse/WinFsp. Repeat if required. --poll-interval duration Time to wait between polling for changes. Must be smaller than dir-cache-time. Only on supported remotes. Set to 0 to disable. (default 1m0s) --read-only Mount read-only. --uid uint32 Override the uid field set by the filesystem. (default 502) --umask int Override the permission bits set by the filesystem. --vfs-cache-max-age duration Max age of objects in the cache. (default 1h0m0s) --vfs-cache-mode string Cache mode off|minimal|writes|full (default "off") --vfs-cache-poll-interval duration Interval to poll the cache for stale objects. (default 1m0s) --write-back-cache Makes kernel buffer writes before sending them to rclone. Without this, writethrough caching is used. ``` ### Options inherited from parent commands ``` --acd-templink-threshold int Files >= this size will be downloaded via their tempLink. (default 9G) --acd-upload-wait-per-gb duration Additional time per GB to wait after a failed complete upload to see if it appears. (default 3m0s) --ask-password Allow prompt for password for encrypted configuration. (default true) --auto-confirm If enabled, do not request console confirmation. --azureblob-chunk-size int Upload chunk size. Must fit in memory. (default 4M) --azureblob-upload-cutoff int Cutoff for switching to chunked upload (default 256M) --b2-chunk-size int Upload chunk size. Must fit in memory. (default 96M) --b2-hard-delete Permanently delete files on remote removal, otherwise hide files. --b2-test-mode string A flag string for X-Bz-Test-Mode header. --b2-upload-cutoff int Cutoff for switching to chunked upload (default 190.735M) --b2-versions Include old versions in directory listings. --backup-dir string Make backups into hierarchy based in DIR. --bind string Local address to bind to for outgoing connections, IPv4, IPv6 or name. --box-upload-cutoff int Cutoff for switching to multipart upload (default 50M) --buffer-size int Buffer size when copying files. (default 16M) --bwlimit BwTimetable Bandwidth limit in kBytes/s, or use suffix b|k|M|G or a full timetable. --cache-chunk-clean-interval string Interval at which chunk cleanup runs (default "1m") --cache-chunk-no-memory Disable the in-memory cache for storing chunks during streaming --cache-chunk-path string Directory to cached chunk files (default "/home/ncw/.cache/rclone/cache-backend") --cache-chunk-size string The size of a chunk (default "5M") --cache-db-path string Directory to cache DB (default "/home/ncw/.cache/rclone/cache-backend") --cache-db-purge Purge the cache DB before --cache-db-wait-time duration How long to wait for the DB to be available - 0 is unlimited (default 1s) --cache-dir string Directory rclone will use for caching. (default "/home/ncw/.cache/rclone") --cache-info-age string How much time should object info be stored in cache (default "6h") --cache-read-retries int How many times to retry a read from a cache storage (default 10) --cache-rps int Limits the number of requests per second to the source FS. -1 disables the rate limiter (default -1) --cache-tmp-upload-path string Directory to keep temporary files until they are uploaded to the cloud storage --cache-tmp-wait-time string How long should files be stored in local cache before being uploaded (default "15m") --cache-total-chunk-size string The total size which the chunks can take up from the disk (default "10G") --cache-workers int How many workers should run in parallel to download chunks (default 4) --cache-writes Will cache file data on writes through the FS --checkers int Number of checkers to run in parallel. (default 8) -c, --checksum Skip based on checksum & size, not mod-time & size --config string Config file. (default "/home/ncw/.rclone.conf") --contimeout duration Connect timeout (default 1m0s) -L, --copy-links Follow symlinks and copy the pointed to item. --cpuprofile string Write cpu profile to file --crypt-show-mapping For all files listed show how the names encrypt. --delete-after When synchronizing, delete files on destination after transfering --delete-before When synchronizing, delete files on destination before transfering --delete-during When synchronizing, delete files during transfer (default) --delete-excluded Delete files on dest excluded from sync --disable string Disable a comma separated list of features. Use help to see a list. --drive-auth-owner-only Only consider files owned by the authenticated user. --drive-chunk-size int Upload chunk size. Must a power of 2 >= 256k. (default 8M) --drive-formats string Comma separated list of preferred formats for downloading Google docs. (default "docx,xlsx,pptx,svg") --drive-impersonate string Impersonate this user when using a service account. --drive-list-chunk int Size of listing chunk 100-1000. 0 to disable. (default 1000) --drive-shared-with-me Only show files that are shared with me --drive-skip-gdocs Skip google documents in all listings. --drive-trashed-only Only show files that are in the trash --drive-upload-cutoff int Cutoff for switching to chunked upload (default 8M) --drive-use-created-date Use created date instead of modified date. --drive-use-trash Send files to the trash instead of deleting permanently. (default true) --dropbox-chunk-size int Upload chunk size. Max 150M. (default 48M) -n, --dry-run Do a trial run with no permanent changes --dump string List of items to dump from: headers,bodies,requests,responses,auth,filters --dump-bodies Dump HTTP headers and bodies - may contain sensitive info --dump-headers Dump HTTP bodies - may contain sensitive info --exclude stringArray Exclude files matching pattern --exclude-from stringArray Read exclude patterns from file --exclude-if-present string Exclude directories if filename is present --fast-list Use recursive list if available. Uses more memory but fewer transactions. --files-from stringArray Read list of source-file names from file -f, --filter stringArray Add a file-filtering rule --filter-from stringArray Read filtering patterns from a file --gcs-location string Default location for buckets (us|eu|asia|us-central1|us-east1|us-east4|us-west1|asia-east1|asia-noetheast1|asia-southeast1|australia-southeast1|europe-west1|europe-west2). --gcs-storage-class string Default storage class for buckets (MULTI_REGIONAL|REGIONAL|STANDARD|NEARLINE|COLDLINE|DURABLE_REDUCED_AVAILABILITY). --ignore-checksum Skip post copy check of checksums. --ignore-existing Skip all files that exist on destination --ignore-size Ignore size when skipping use mod-time or checksum. -I, --ignore-times Don't skip files that match size and time - transfer all files --immutable Do not modify files. Fail if existing files have been modified. --include stringArray Include files matching pattern --include-from stringArray Read include patterns from file --local-no-unicode-normalization Don't apply unicode normalization to paths and filenames --log-file string Log everything to this file --log-level string Log level DEBUG|INFO|NOTICE|ERROR (default "NOTICE") --low-level-retries int Number of low level retries to do. (default 10) --max-age duration Don't transfer any file older than this in s or suffix ms|s|m|h|d|w|M|y (default off) --max-delete int When synchronizing, limit the number of deletes (default -1) --max-depth int If set limits the recursion depth to this. (default -1) --max-size int Don't transfer any file larger than this in k or suffix b|k|M|G (default off) --memprofile string Write memory profile to file --min-age duration Don't transfer any file younger than this in s or suffix ms|s|m|h|d|w|M|y (default off) --min-size int Don't transfer any file smaller than this in k or suffix b|k|M|G (default off) --modify-window duration Max time diff to be considered the same (default 1ns) --no-check-certificate Do not verify the server SSL certificate. Insecure. --no-gzip-encoding Don't set Accept-Encoding: gzip. --no-traverse Obsolete - does nothing. --no-update-modtime Don't update destination mod-time if files identical. -x, --one-file-system Don't cross filesystem boundaries. --onedrive-chunk-size int Above this size files will be chunked - must be multiple of 320k. (default 10M) -q, --quiet Print as little stuff as possible --rc Enable the remote control server. --rc-addr string IPaddress:Port or :Port to bind server to. (default "localhost:5572") --rc-cert string SSL PEM key (concatenation of certificate and CA certificate) --rc-client-ca string Client certificate authority to verify clients with --rc-htpasswd string htpasswd file - if not provided no authentication is done --rc-key string SSL PEM Private key --rc-max-header-bytes int Maximum size of request header (default 4096) --rc-pass string Password for authentication. --rc-realm string realm for authentication (default "rclone") --rc-server-read-timeout duration Timeout for server reading data (default 1h0m0s) --rc-server-write-timeout duration Timeout for server writing data (default 1h0m0s) --rc-user string User name for authentication. --retries int Retry operations this many times if they fail (default 3) --s3-acl string Canned ACL used when creating buckets and/or storing objects in S3 --s3-storage-class string Storage class to use when uploading S3 objects (STANDARD|REDUCED_REDUNDANCY|STANDARD_IA) --sftp-ask-password Allow asking for SFTP password when needed. --size-only Skip based on size only, not mod-time or checksum --skip-links Don't warn about skipped symlinks. --stats duration Interval between printing stats, e.g 500ms, 60s, 5m. (0 to disable) (default 1m0s) --stats-file-name-length int Max file name length in stats. 0 for no limit (default 40) --stats-log-level string Log level to show --stats output DEBUG|INFO|NOTICE|ERROR (default "INFO") --stats-unit string Show data rate in stats as either 'bits' or 'bytes'/s (default "bytes") --streaming-upload-cutoff int Cutoff for switching to chunked upload if file size is unknown. Upload starts after reaching cutoff or when file ends. (default 100k) --suffix string Suffix for use with --backup-dir. --swift-chunk-size int Above this size files will be chunked into a _segments container. (default 5G) --syslog Use Syslog for logging --syslog-facility string Facility for syslog, eg KERN,USER,... (default "DAEMON") --timeout duration IO idle timeout (default 5m0s) --tpslimit float Limit HTTP transactions per second to this. --tpslimit-burst int Max burst of transactions for --tpslimit. (default 1) --track-renames When synchronizing, track file renames and do a server side move if possible --transfers int Number of file transfers to run in parallel. (default 4) -u, --update Skip files that are newer on the destination. --user-agent string Set the user-agent to a specified string. The default is rclone/ version (default "rclone/v1.40") -v, --verbose count Print lots more stuff (repeat for more) ``` ### SEE ALSO * [rclone](/commands/rclone/) - Sync files and directories to and from local and remote object stores - v1.40 ###### Auto generated by spf13/cobra on 19-Mar-2018