Create symlinks on google drive via rclone?

[Daniel_Krajnik]

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

I'm trying to create or copy a symlink to a google drive mounted via rclone. I was okay with copy pasting some files before, but now it proves necessary - I can't create a python virtual environment (python -m venv venv) without symlinks support (--copies options doesn't work).

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

rclone v1.65.0
- os/version: arch rolling (64 bit)
- os/kernel: 6.6.3-arch1-1 (x86_64)
- os/type: linux
- os/arch: amd64
- go/version: go1.21.4
- go/linking: dynamic
- go/tags: none

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)

rclone mount gdrive-encrypted: /mnt/gdrive-rclone-encrypted \
--umask 077 \
--rc --rc-addr :<REDACTED> --rc-user <REDACTED> --rc-pass <REDACTED> \
--cache-dir /home/user/.cache/rclone/gdrive-encrypted \
--vfs-cache-mode full \
--vfs-cache-poll-interval 5m \
--vfs-cache-max-age 8760h \
--vfs-cache-max-size 10G \
--attr-timeout 8700h \
--dir-cache-time 8760h \
--poll-interval 10s \
--multi-thread-streams 0 \
--links

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

[gdrive]
type = drive
client_id = XXX
client_secret = XXX
scope = drive
token = XXX
root_folder_id = XXX
team_drive =

[gdrive-encrypted]
type = crypt
remote = gdrive:crypt
password = XXX
password2 = XXX

Thank you for creating the redacted option

A log from the command that you were trying to run

Trying to create a python venv:

python -m venv venv
Error: [Errno 5] Input/output error: 'lib'

Trying to copy a symlink to google drive:

cp -a link /mnt/gdrive-rclone-encrypted/test
cp: cannot create symbolic link 'scripts/test': Input/output error

[kapitainsky]

Links are not supported on rclone mounts.

There is many years old issue open:

New --links parameter not working with mount?

Still not implemented.

[Daniel_Krajnik]

Thank you for confirming. That's a shame - it would be really useful.

[kapitainsky]

Agree... I will read this issue thread later trying to figure out what is stopping it from happening

There were some attempts to make it happen, e.g.:

Add symlink support to mount command for #2975

But closed and abandoned - quick scan tells me that it is actually tricky thing.