What is the problem you are having with rclone?
Rclone handles symlink status of the local path root differently in --links/--local-links vs any other mode.
In all other modes, when symlink is given as a local root, it traverses it and handles any symlinks inside as instructed (ignores/copies).
This arrangement is typical e.g. when creating a Volume Shadow copy on Windows. It gets a kernel namespace name and you symlink it somewhere to make filesystem tools less confused.
In --local-links it immediately stops processing and complains:
need ".rclonelink" suffix to refer to symlink when using -l/--links
I argue:
- The behavior should not be different in these modes. Either the root is special, or is handled like any subpath.
- The old behavior is more intuitive. If you’re explicitly pointing to a path, you want that path synchronized, links or no.
- Ability to add “.rclonelink“ and synchronize that one link as a link is an edge case. Useful, can be kept but should not restrict default behavior.
Run the command 'rclone version' and share the full output of the command.
rclone v1.72.1
- os/version: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 21H2 21H2 (64 bit)
- os/kernel: 10.0.19044.1826 (x86_64)
- os/type: windows
- os/arch: amd64
- go/version: go1.25.5
- go/linking: static
- go/tags: cmount
Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)
local, ssh
The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)
rclone sync --local-links C:\Path\To\Symlink remote:
A log from the command with the -vv flag
2026/01/29 14:48:36 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.72.1" starting with parameters ["rclone" "sync" "--local-links" "-vv" "C:\\Temp\\rclone-symlink-test\\Src-Link\\" "C:\\Temp\\rclone-symlink-test\\Trg\\"]
2026/01/29 14:48:36 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "C:\\Temp\\rclone-symlink-test\\Src-Link\\"
2026/01/29 14:48:36 DEBUG : Using config file from "[..]"
2026/01/29 14:48:36 DEBUG : local: detected overridden config - adding "{b6816}" suffix to name
2026/01/29 14:48:36 CRITICAL: Failed to create file system for "C:\\Temp\\rclone-symlink-test\\Src-Link\\": need ".rclonelink" suffix to refer to symlink when using -l/--links
Workaround:
Even though rclone normally groups junctions with symlinks (“Normally rclone will ignore symlinks and junction points“), not in this case. So if you make a junction to symlink, this will work.
If --local-links handles junctions too (as I would argue would be logical, given that other link handling does), then there’s an inconsistency here too. If it doesn’t, then it’s a problem where rclone complains about junctions and symlinks both, then you set a flag to change this behavior and it starts syncing only symlinks while silently ignoring junctions.