Rclone mount: save files for offline use, sync in background

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1

I have installed a systemd service to sync with box using rclone on my archlinux:

# cat ~/.config/systemd/user/rclone.service
[Service]
ExecStart=rclone --vfs-cache-mode full mount remote: /home/maddin/box
Type=notify

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

# config
[remote]
type = box
token = {"access_token":"[...]","token_type":"bearer","refresh_token":"[...]","expiry":"[...]"}

# rclone --version                              
rclone v1.47.0      
- os/arch: linux/amd64
- go version: go1.12.3

When I browse the contents of the mounted drive using a terminal file manager (ranger), there are significant loading times since it is probably downloading the contents at that very moment.

How can I set the system up in a way that I have the files on my drive even when I'm offline, and syncing takes place in the background without disturbing the workflow? The regular dropbox application (not using rclone) does that for example.

This might be very basic, but I did not really know where to start, so I am asking here. Maybe using rclone mount is even the wrong approach?

2

If you want the files on the local machine then running rclone sync regularly will be a better approach. Just don't create or edit files in the local copy as they will be overwritten by the sync.

3

If you want the files on the local machine then running rclone sync regularly will be a better approach. Just don't create or edit files in the local copy as they will be overwritten by the sync.

Thank you for this information.
So there is no way to have the files on the local machine syncing regularly and have them automatically uploaded upon creating/editing? If there are conflicts, I know Dropbox solves it by creating a copy of the conflicted file, so no version is lost.

4

rclone doesn't have a two way sync at the moment. So you can either do an rclone sync or use rclone mount. However rclone mount doesn't work offline.

I'd like to do a two way sync and there have been various efforts to do it but we aren't there yet!

5

Okay, good to know :slight_smile: Good luck in the future :slight_smile:

6

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