Basics of rclone
Stairway to the Cloud
As a simple and reliable command-line backup utility that supports popular cloud storage services, rclone makes a perfect tool for maintaining an off-site backup of your data. This article can help you to get started.
Cloud storage is cheap nowadays, and you have plenty of storage providers to choose from. So, you have no excuse for not having an off-site backup system to keep your files safe. There is a fly in the ointment, however. Many cloud storage services want you to use their own proprietary graphical client applications. Worse still, some services don't provide Linux clients at all. Fortunately, there is rclone, a small open source utility that can talk to many popular cloud storage services, including Google Drive, Amazon S3, and hubiC. Additionally, rclone can handle local filesystems, so you can use it for local backup, too. The utility is straightforward in use, so there is no learning curve to speak of.
Deploying rclone
Written in Go, rclone is distributed as a self-contained binary file with no dependencies, and it will happily run on the x86, AMD64, and ARM platforms. Installing rclone is not difficult, but it does require a bit of manual work. Grab the latest release of the tool for the appropriate Linux platform from the project's website [1]. Unpack the downloaded archive and switch to the resulting directory in the terminal. Then, copy the binary executable to the /usr/local/bin/ directory and change the file's permissions:
sudo cp rclone /usr/local/bin/ sudo chown root:root /usr/local/bin/rclone sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/rclone
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.