Beginner question

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

No problem, but I rushed through install with less understanding than I should have and would like to start over. How may I do so?

Run the command 'rclone version' and share the full output of the command.

$ rclone version
rclone v1.60.1-DEV

  • os/version: ubuntu 24.04 (64 bit)
  • os/kernel: 6.8.0-39-generic (x86_64)
  • os/type: linux
  • os/arch: amd64
  • go/version: go1.22.2
  • go/linking: dynamic
  • go/tags: none

Are you on the latest version of rclone? You can validate by checking the version listed here: Rclone downloads
-->
No, I just used apt from ubuntu. I see that I am seven versions behind latest and probably should upgrade. If I do that, will my remote go away? I have no problem if that is true.

Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)

Google Drive

The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)

Paste command here

No particular command. What I want to understand and don't is how I access the remote I created with tools like the command line or Nautilus.

Please run 'rclone config redacted' and share the full output. If you get command not found, please make sure to update rclone.

$ rclone config redacted
Usage:
  rclone config [flags]
  rclone config [command]

Available Commands:
...

A log from the command that you were trying to run with the -vv flag

Paste  log here

I just want to start over. My use case is extremely small. I am a single user, not part of an organization. I merely want to share one or two files among multiple computers.

welcome to the forun,

remote config file should not go away. but you never know for sure.
always good to backup it up. to find it, use rclone config file

can remove rclone using apt and then https://rclone.org/install/#script-installation

first, test rclone lsd remote: -vv - note: change remote to the name of your remote.

Thank you very much for your help. I have watched a few tutorials and now understand what the config routine is doing.

$ rclone lsd myremote: -vv
2024/08/05 16:13:26 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.67.0" starting with parameters ["rclone" "lsd" "myremote:" "-vv"]
2024/08/05 16:13:26 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "myremote:"
2024/08/05 16:13:26 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/scohen/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2024/08/05 16:13:26 DEBUG : 6 go routines active

and then

$ rclone ls myremote: -vv
2024/08/05 16:18:16 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.67.0" starting with parameters ["rclone" "ls" "myremote:" "-vv"]
2024/08/05 16:18:16 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "myremote:"
2024/08/05 16:18:16 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/scohen/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
    66670 abc.xyz
2024/08/05 16:18:16 DEBUG : 6 go routines active

How then do I

  1. access the files with an app on the local machine
  2. save changes that propagate back to Google Drive
  3. if other devices change files on the Google Drive, have the most recent version load when the machine with rclone accesses them.
    in other words, keep them in synch.

want to mount gdrive as local storage. a very simple example is:
rclone mount myremote: /home/scohen/mount --allow-other

rclone sync

Thank you very much!

Hey, I tried the rclone mount command and it did what I wanted it to (the files in my Google Drive now appear on my file system) but it never returned; that is the process is still going, and it has been that way for 15 minutes. Is this a problem, can I just kill the process, or what?

correct, the rclone mount does not return.
if you kill it, then cannot access the files in gdrive.

Oh, I didn't understand that. I am looking for a way to make the mount permanent, or at least persistent. Put it on the system level?

same as with any app. systemd, cron
the forum is full of examples.

Thanks. What I thought. I will have a look.

rclone sync

Make source and dest identical, modifying destination only.

But I want this to work bidirectionally. If a file in the local directory is changed, I want that propagated out to the remote (Google Drive). If a file on the remote is changed by another device, I want that propagated back to the machine running rclone.

How can I do this?

rclone bisync

I have gotten myself into a pickle playing around with rclone and systemd and now I am in a state I can't seem to get out of.

I created a mount called wopa: in my configuration file, a Google Drive folder. I mounted it at $HOME/wopa. (I actually spelled it out, didn't use $HOME). At one point it worked. but I wanted it running as a service. I tried different commands putting rclone mount in systemd and things didn't work.

Whatever I may have done, I now find myself in this situation:

cd $HOME
$rclone delete wopa:
$ ls -al
ls: cannot access 'wopa': Transport endpoint is not connected
total 2849384
...
d?????????   ? ?      ?               ?            ?  wopa
$ ls -al wopa
ls: cannot access 'wopa': Transport endpoint is not connected
$ rmdir wopa
rmdir: failed to remove 'wopa': Device or resource busy

How do I get out of this mess?

that is not possible. cannot store mount information in the config file.
i think you mean, that you created a remote for gdrive in the config file?

let's start with the basic info:

  • rclone version
  • rclone config redacted
  • rclone lsd wopa: -vv
$ rclone version
rclone v1.67.0
- os/version: ubuntu 24.04 (64 bit)
- os/kernel: 6.8.0-39-generic (x86_64)
- os/type: linux
- os/arch: amd64
- go/version: go1.22.4
- go/linking: static
- go/tags: none
$ rclone config redacted
[wopa]
type = drive
scope = drive
token = XXX
team_drive = 
root_folder_id = XXX
### Double check the config for sensitive info before posting publicly
$ rclone lsd wopa: -vv
2024/08/08 10:33:05 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.67.0" starting with parameters ["rclone" "lsd" "wopa:" "-vv"]
2024/08/08 10:33:05 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "wopa:"
2024/08/08 10:33:05 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/scohen/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2024/08/08 10:33:06 DEBUG : 6 go routines active

ok, good

from the mount command on the command line,
post the top thirty lines of the debug output.

{scohen@taormina ~}$ rclone mount wopa: $HOME/wopa -vv
2024/08/08 10:39:10 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.67.0" starting with parameters ["rclone" "mount" "wopa:" "/home/scohen/wopa" "-vv"]
2024/08/08 10:39:10 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "wopa:"
2024/08/08 10:39:10 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/scohen/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2024/08/08 10:39:11 Fatal error: failed to mount FUSE fs: directory already mounted, use --allow-non-empty to mount anyway: /home/scohen/wopa
{scohen@taormina ~}$ rclone mount wopa: $HOME/wopa -vv --allow-non-empty
2024/08/08 10:39:40 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.67.0" starting with parameters ["rclone" "mount" "wopa:" "/home/scohen/wopa" "-vv" "--allow-non-empty"]
2024/08/08 10:39:40 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "wopa:"
2024/08/08 10:39:40 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/scohen/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2024/08/08 10:39:40 DEBUG : Google drive root '': Mounting on "/home/scohen/wopa"
2024/08/08 10:39:40 mount helper error: fusermount3: failed to access mountpoint /home/scohen/wopa: Permission denied
2024/08/08 10:39:40 Fatal error: failed to mount FUSE fs: fusermount: exit status 1

--allow-non-empty, should never use that flag, ok?

that means you have another instance of rclone mount running in the background.

  1. kill all instances of rclone.
  2. run the mount command again and post the output.
{scohen@taormina ~}$ ps -ef | grep rclone
scohen    197393   83326  0 10:47 pts/2    00:00:00 grep --color=auto rclone

What next, reboot?

we need a good debug log, running rclone mount on the command line.

could try something like fusermount -uz /home/scohen/wopa/

else reboot, but make sure to disable the systemd service beforehand.