Rclone sync hangs on start in systemd service, futex lockup, since v1.70.1

Suspected Bug
1

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

When run from a systemd user unit, rclone sync does not start. but hangs (see strace).
Script works when run from terminal, or as a service with terminal output.
No problems with v1.69.3.

Strace:

# strace -p $(pgrep -f rclone)
strace: Process 2234127 attached
futex(0x562c55ada180, FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE, 0, NULL

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

rclone v1.70.1
- os/version: arch (64 bit)
- os/kernel: 6.15.3-arch1-1 (x86_64)
- os/type: linux
- os/arch: amd64
- go/version: go1.24.4
- go/linking: dynamic
- go/tags: none

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

Pcloud

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

Command:

rclone sync /home/dave/Templates pCloud:/Backups/Templates -vlx

In script:

#! /usr/bin/env bash

rclone sync ~/Templates pCloud:/Backups/Templates -vlx

In service:

$ cat .config/systemd/user/backup-templates.service 
[Unit]
Description=Templates updater

[Service]
ExecStart=/home/dave/bin/backup-templates

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

The rclone config contents with secrets removed.

[pCloud]
type = pcloud
multi_thread_streams = 0
hostname = eapi.pcloud.com
token = {"access_token":"redactedd","token_type":"bearer","expiry":"0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"}
username = redacted
password = redacted

A log from the command with the -vv flag

No log when run as systemd service.
Service status:

Jun 24 07:56:35 tiny systemd[35101]: Started Templates updater.
Jun 24 08:21:56 tiny backup-templates[2234054]: Terminated
Jun 24 08:21:56 tiny systemd[35101]: backup-templates.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=127/n/a
Jun 24 08:21:56 tiny systemd[35101]: backup-templates.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

When run from terminal with -vvv:

2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "/home/dave/Templates"
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/dave/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : local: detected overridden config - adding "{vECL7}" suffix to name
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item "/home/dave/Templates" to be canonical "local{vECL7}:/home/dave/Templates"
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "pCloud:/Backups/Templates"
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item "pCloud:/Backups/Templates" to be canonical "pCloud:Backups/Templates"
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : .stignore: Size and modification time the same (differ by -925.631562ms, within tolerance 1s)
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : Geschäftsbrief.odt: Size and modification time the same (differ by -769.308947ms, within tolerance 1s)
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : LibreOffice Writer.odt: Size and modification time the same (differ by 0s, within tolerance 1s)
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : Geschäftsbrief.odt: Unchanged skipping
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : LibreOffice Writer.odt: Unchanged skipping
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : Nemo action.nemo_action: Size and modification time the same (differ by 0s, within tolerance 1s)
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : MS Word XML.docx: Size and modification time the same (differ by 0s, within tolerance 1s)
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : New BASH script: Size and modification time the same (differ by -721.916495ms, within tolerance 1s)
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : Nemo action.nemo_action: Unchanged skipping
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : Systemd service file.service: Size and modification time the same (differ by 0s, within tolerance 1s)
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : Systemd timer file.timer: Size and modification time the same (differ by 0s, within tolerance 1s)
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : Systemd service file.service: Unchanged skipping
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : Systemd timer file.timer: Unchanged skipping
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : .backup: Size and modification time the same (differ by -706.546916ms, within tolerance 1s)
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : icon-480.svg: Size and modification time the same (differ by -2.591979ms, within tolerance 1s)
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : .stignore: Unchanged skipping
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : icon-480.svg: Unchanged skipping
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : pcloud root 'Backups/Templates': Waiting for checks to finish
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : MS Word XML.docx: Unchanged skipping
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : New BASH script: Unchanged skipping
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : .backup: Unchanged skipping
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : app.desktop: Size and modification time the same (differ by 0s, within tolerance 1s)
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : .mounted: Size and modification time the same (differ by 0s, within tolerance 1s)
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : .mounted: Unchanged skipping
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : app.desktop: Unchanged skipping
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : pcloud root 'Backups/Templates': Waiting for transfers to finish
2025/06/24 08:20:58 DEBUG : Waiting for deletions to finish
2025/06/24 08:20:58 INFO  : There was nothing to transfer
2025/06/24 08:20:58 INFO  :
2

Have a look at:

And try proposed fix. I think it can apply to your case as well.

3

Thanks, I'll try that.

4

Ok so I tried that. rclone is not restarting in my case as the ps rclone output always returns the same PID, and the strace indicates that there's a futex hang, that is, it looks like rclone is waiting for some kind of unblocking signal from the systemd environment which never comes.

I tried it with redirection to a log file, and indeed it worked! Which is nice, but I have several rclone instances running in the script and I would rather not have a mess of log files outside the process. This was just a test harness to isolate the problem.

I'm going to be sticking to the previous 1.69.3 version until it's fixed, which it might already be, and I hope this info helps if not.

1 Like
5

Hi @Dave_B this was fixed in v.1.70.2

1 Like
6

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