FOSSPicks

Cloud backup

rclone

Whenever we write about backing up data, it's always with the caveat that it's a tedious but essential process. But two things have made it less tedious over the last decade – the first is cloud storage, as it means you no longer have to source your own off-site silo for your data, and the second is rsync. Rsync is an amazing tool that duplicates the contents of one filesystem to another and also does a great job of only pushing deltas rather than copying entire files each time. But it's complicated and requires considerable work if you need the source or destination to be somewhere in the cloud, and this is where rclone steps in.

Rclone's elevator pitch is "rsync for cloud storage," but to do this, it needs to know how to talk to lots of different cloud storage providers. Fortunately, it does – nearly 40 of them, including Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, Nextcloud, SFTP, WebDAV, and even your local filesystem. Adding a destination is an interactive process, started by typing rclone config, selecting New remote followed by your chosen cloud storage. This interactive process makes it easy to make the destination "read-only," for instance, and will typically open your default browser to allow you to authenticate the new client. It's quick and easy, and the excellent online documentation includes transcripts for each service if you get stuck. Backup is then as easy as typing rclone copy followed by the remote and local locations. Another brilliant feature supported on most clouds is server-side copy. This allows you to copy between two remote locations without the file or files passing through your local machine. It's perfect for transferring large amounts of data between Google and Amazon, for example, without affecting your local bandwidth at all.

Project Website

https://rclone.org

Apart from backup, one of the best uses for rclone is sending freshly scanned PDFs to Google Drive, where they'll automatically be processed by its fabulous OCR.

Data management

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • FOSSPicks

    Graham checks out Sigil, Dragonfly Reverb, LabPlot 2.8, Node-RED, batufo, rg3d, and much more.

  • FOSSPicks

    Graham looks at the PlotJuggler 3 data visualizer, note taking with Xournal++, the KStars planetarium, and more!

  • FOSSPicks

    This month Nate feels like a youngster in a candy store all over again given the delectable range of FOSS treats. He's also delighted to have found a way to manage all his Flatpaks.

  • Sparkling gems and new releases from the world of Free and Open Source Software

    Graham looks at Cutter, Thunar 1.8.0, usbfd, Linuxbrew, Uniread, GSequencer, fkill, and more!

  • FOSSPicks

    After watching Ubuntu help NASA with its first controlled flight on another planet, Graham spent far too much time this month visiting Mars in Elite Dangerous, via Proton on Linux.

comments powered by Disqus
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.

Learn More

News