Idea to improve wording of "auto config" during configuration

Feature
1

Hi,

I often see forum post from users, that get stuck during configuration of a new remote and seem unaware that they are using a "remote or headless machine":

Use auto config?
 * Say Y if not sure
 * Say N if you are working on a remote or headless machine

y) Yes (default)
n) No
y/n>

Perhaps these terms aren't widely known and thereby leave many unsure and then (wrongly) selecting Y

If so, then we could help both users and ourselves by rephrasing.

Here is an idea for inspiration (not sure if it is technically correct):

Use automatic browser based authentication setup?
 * Say Y if your machine has an internet  browser or not sure
 * Say N if you are working on a (remote) machine without internet browser or the above fails

y) Yes (default)
n) No
y/n>

I will leave it to somebody native English to make a good wording.

Addendum:

Perhaps we should also copy the below sentence from OneDrive to Google Drive:

See the remote setup docs for how to set it up on a machine with no Internet browser available.

2 Likes
2

We have been through an iteration of this before I think! Can't find the commit.

I like your idea of pointing out a web browser is needed. I think we need to stress that this is about the machine that rclone is running on.

How about this?

Use automatic browser based authentication setup?
 * Say Y if the machine your are running rclone on has a web browser you can use
 * Say N if you are running rclone on a (remote) machine without a web browser access
If not sure say Y. If you have tried Y and it didn't work, try N.

All the oauth based backends should have that in their help somewhere if you feel like doing a mass update!

Here is a list of the backends which use OAuth - I've written :white_check_mark: by them if I found the string remote_setup in their docs.

  • amazonclouddrive :white_check_mark:
  • azureblob
  • box :white_check_mark:
  • drive
  • dropbox
  • filefabric
  • googlecloudstorage
  • googlephotos
  • hidrive :white_check_mark:
  • jottacloud
  • mailru
  • onedrive :white_check_mark:
  • pcloud :white_check_mark:
  • premiumizeme :white_check_mark:
  • putio
  • sharefile :white_check_mark:
  • yandex :white_check_mark:
  • zoho :white_check_mark:
3

I like those changes as that definitely seems to be a confusing point.

4

I like it, thanks!

I will make a PR including the mass update in a few days when everybody has had a chance to comment.

In the meantime I have a curious linguistic question to this sentence: "a machine without a web browser access". I would say either "a machine without a web browser" or "a machine without web browser access". Is it a typo or my English needing adjustment?

5

Hmm.

English sucks as a language :slight_smile:

I'd probably remove the word access and go with your second.

6

This is good!

The access is to imply the user needs to be able to use the web browser. It is perfectly possible to ssh into a remote machine that has a web browser installed, but you can't use it. I wanted to explain that somehow (perhaps unnecessarily)!

7

Would it be helpful if the question described a bit more clearly what is being auto configured?

Something like this:

Use web browser to automatically authenticate rclone with remote?
 * Say Y if the machine running rclone has a web browser you can directly access
 * Say N if the machine running rclone is without a web browser (or if Y fails)

y) Yes (default)
n) No
8

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