I'm synchronizing files from a Mac (running Monterey) to a Windows fileserver, and I'm running into trouble with trying to synchronize either Mac aliases or linux symlinks (created using the Mac Terminal) to the fileserver.
For Mac aliases, rclone creates a nonfunctional binary file on the destination. When using rsync instead of rclone, the -E option copies the extended attributes of the file (like the resource fork of an alias) such that the aliases continue to function when a Mac is accessing the Windows fileserver. But I can't find a way to emulate the same using rclone; is there a way?
For symilnks, from what I've read on the forum, there's no way to sync functional symlinks to the remote fileserver. I can have rclone ignore the symlinks (which it does by default), or use --links (which will have it create a .rclonelink text file with the source path included) or use -l (which will copy the target folder of the symlink over to the destination), but none of those options will allow the symlinks to continue functioning. Is that correct?
Run the command 'rclone version' and share the full output of the command.
rclone v1.58.1
os/version: darwin 12.4 (64 bit)
os/kernel: 21.5.0 (x86_64)
os/type: darwin
os/arch: amd64
go/version: go1.18.1
go/linking: dynamic
go/tags: none
Are you on the latest version of rclone? You can validate by checking the version listed here: Rclone downloads
Yes.
Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)
A Windows fileserver running Acronis Connect so that I can mount the drive as AFP instead of SMB.
Currently in development there is a feature which will copy the extended attributes of files.
Do you happen to know the extended attribute keys that are in use here? Currently this feature copies all the extended attributes under user. but I think this may not be enough for macOS.
That is correct, but it is also something that can be fixed with the metadata branch.
I'm not sure how to answer your question about the extended attribute keys, but if there's something I can run to reveal the attribute keys (xattr?) I can do it. There's more about the resource forks here: Extended Attributes | A Practical Guide to UNIX for Mac OS X Users.
xattr <filename> will just list the names of the attributes - that should be enough, though xattr -l <filename> might be interesting which will show the names and values.